
Class_£ili 

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COraRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




WooDKow Wilson. 



ALLYN AND BACON'S SERIES OF SCHOOL HISTORIES 

A HISTORY OF , 

THE UNITED STATES 



BY 

JOHN HOLLADAY LATANE, Ph.D., LL.D. 

PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY IN THE 
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 



o^^c 



ALLYN AND BACON 

Boston Wciu Hork Cljirago 






ALLYN AND BACON'S SERIES OF 

SCHOOL HISTORIES 

1 2mo, half leather, numerous maps, plans, and illustrations 



THE ANCIENT WORLD. Revised. By Willis M. West. 
Also in two volumes : Part I. Greece and the East. 
Part II. Rome and the West. 

THE MODERN WORLD. By Willis M. West. 

SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By Charles M. Andrews of 
Yale University. 

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. By Willis M. West, 

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Revised. By Charles 
K. Adams and William P. Trent of Columbia University. 

ANCIENT HISTORY. By Willis M. West. 

MODERN HISTORY. By Willis M. West. 

HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By Charles M. Andrews. 

AMERICAN HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT, By Willis M. 
West. 



COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY 
JOHN H. LATANE 



SEP 24 2 1 



NortoooD ^rcss 

J. S. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



g)C!.A622981 



PREFACE 

In the preparation of this volume the attempt has been 
made to combine as far as possible the topical with the 
chronological method of presentation. History is not a 
mere study of facts, but of the relationship between facts, 
of cause and effect. In the selection of topics only those have 
been included which appeared to be really significant, and 
each topic has been developed, it is hoped, with sufficient 
fullness to maLke it intelligible. In order to bring the book 
into line with recent tendencies three things have been 
emphasized : 

(1) Diplomatic history has been given special attention. 
Hitherto Americans have devoted little thought to foreign 
relations, but the world war has brought us into vital contact 
with world politics, and as Mr. Root says, "A democracy 
which undertakes to control its own foreign relations ought 
to know something about the subject." The different 
periods of our foreign policy have, therefore, been given a 
fuller and more continuous treatment than in any general 
text-book that has so far been written. 

(2) Military history has been given rather more space 
than it has received in the books now in use. Mihtary his- 
tory should be studied for several reasons, — as a matter of 
general intelligence, as a connecting link between history and 
geography, and for a correct Uu-derstanding of the problems 
of national defence. The chapter on the War of 1812 is 
based in the main on Captain Mahan's great study of that 
contest, and is designed to place it in its true light. In the 
treatment of the Civil War the attempt is made to show 
the effect on military operations of the blockade, of the 



vi Preface 

attitude of foreign powers, and of economic conditions, 
North and South. 

(3) An effort has been made to show the influence of 
economic conditions on the pohtics of the country through- 
out its entire history. The economic motive is by no means 
the sole motive which determines the actions of men in 
mass, but it is unquestionably one of the most compelling 
motives. The slavery contest was economic in its origin 
and development. It became eventually a moral issue. 

In arranging the topical references no attempt has been 
made at a full bibliography. Except in a few instances only 
the better known and more recent standard writers, whose 
works should be on the shelves of every well-selected library, 
are included. 

John H, Latane. 



CONTENTS 



PART I — THE COLONIES 



I. The New World . • • 

II. The Foundations of Enghsh Colonization . 

III. A Century of Growth and Expansion 

IV. The Rise and Fall of New France 

PART II — THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 

V. Causes of the American Revolution . 

VI. The Attempt to Coerce Massachusetts 

VII. The Attack on the Center . 

VIII. The French Alliance .... 

IX. The War in the South 

PART III— NATIONAL ORGANIZATION 



X. The Adoption of the Constitution 

XL The Presidency of Washington . 

XII. Federalists and Republicans 

XIII. The Struggle for Neutral Rights . 

XIV. The Second War with England . 
XV. Industrial Growth and Westward Expansion 



1 

18 
46 

72 



92 
112 
129 
146 
157 



175 
191 
207 
224 
235 
251 



PART IV — SECTIONAL DIVERGENCE 



XVI. Jacksonian Democracy 

XVII. The Period of the Mexican War 

XVIII. Slavery in the Territories . 

XIX. The Irrepressible Conflict . 

XX. Secession .... 



271 
289 
308 
323 
340 



PART V — THE CIVIL WAR 

XXI. The Opening Campaigns, East and West 
XXII. The High Tide of the Confederacy . 
XXIII. The Blockade and Foreign Relations . 

vii 



357 
380 
396 



Vlll 



Contents 



XXIV. The Outcome of the War . 
XXV. Reconstruction of the Southern States 



PAGE 

408 
424 



PART VI — THE NEW NATION 

XXVI. Economic Changes, 1877-1897 

XXVII. Foreign Relations, 1866-1897 

XXVIII. The War with Spain . 

XXIX. America as a World Power 

XXX. The New Democracy . 

XXXI. The European War . 



449 
475 
497 
520 
540 
555 



Appendix A. Declaration of Independence . . . 569 

Appendix B. Constitution of the United States of America 574 



Index . 1-28 



MAPS 



9. 
10. 
11. 
12. 
13. 
14. 
15. 
16. 
17. 

18. 

19. 
20. 

21. 
22. 
23. 
24. 
25. 
26. 
27. 



Oriental Trade Routes and Portuguese and Spanish Dis- 
coveries. Double page, colored . . folloiving 
Toscanelli's Map ......... 

Distribution of Indian Tribes. Full page, colored facing 
New England in 1640 ...... facing 

Virginia and Maryland in 1650. Full page, colored facing 
Types of Colonial Government. Full page, colored facing 
French Explorations and Settlements. Full page, colored 

facing 

European Possessions in America, 1664-1775. Full page, 

colored ........ facing 

The British Colonies in 1767. Full page, colored facing 

Western Settlements at Time of the Revolution 

Boston and Its Environs 

Siege of Boston .... 

Retreat across New Jersey, 1776-1777 
The Middle Atlantic States . 
Operations in the South, 1780-1781 
Operations at Yorktown 
Boundaries proposed by France in 1782. Full page, colored 

facing 
The United States in 1783. State Claims and Cessions. 

Full page, colored facing 

West Florida Controversy, 1783-1819 

Explorations of Lewis and Clark and of Pike, 
colored ....... 

The Canadian Frontier .... 

Operations around Niagara .... 

Operations around Washington and Baltimore 
The Missouri Compromise. Full page, colored 
The United States in 1830. Double page, colored following 
Territory Claimed by Texas. Full page, colored . facing 
Territory Ceded by Mexico, 1848-1853. Full page, colored 

facing 
ix 



Full page, 
facing 



facing 



2 
5 
15 
40 
44 
61 

73 

89 
92 
108 
119 
122 
134 
141 
159 
169 

171 

176 
219 

220 
235 
243 
245 
261 
270 
299 

303 



X Maps 

PAGE 

28. United States. Acquisition of Territory. Full page, colored 

facing 308 

29. Compromise of 1850. Full page, colored . . facing 317 

30. Freedom and Slavery in 1854. Full page, colored facing 328 

31. The United States in 1861. Double page, colored following 350 

32. The War in the East 359 

33. Operations in the West ....... 363 

34. Hampton Roads ......... 368 

35. Map of Battle of Gettysburg. Full page, colored facing 387 

36. Vicksburg Campaign ........ 391 

37. West Indies. Double page, colored . . following 526 

38. Map of United States and Insular Dependencies. Double 

page, colored ....... following 540 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Woodrow Wilson Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Sir Humphrey Gilbert 19 

Pocahontas ........... 22 

Captain John Smith ......... 23 

Lord Delaware 24 

Sir William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia ..... 27 

Lady Berkeley, wife of Sir William Berkeley .... 28 
Cecilius Calvert, second Baron Baltimore . . . . .29 

John Winthrop .......... 36 

Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon 46 

William Penn, at the age of twenty-two ..... 51 

La Salle 74 

Patrick Henry .......... 96 

Patrick Henry addressing the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1765 

in support of his Resolutions against the Stamp Act . . 99 

Daniel Boone ,'.......... 107 

Lord Dunmore 109 

William Pitt, Earl of Chatham 114 

Washington as a Virginia Colonel, from portrait by Peale painted 

in 1772 117 

Statue of Minuteman at Concord . . . . . .118 

Charles Carroll of CarroUton, last surviving signer of the Declara- 
tion of Independence ........ 127 

Benjamin Franklin ......... 147 

George Rogers Clark . 152 

Benedict Arnold 161 

Henry Lee, known as "Light Horse Harry" Lee .... 163 

Daniel Morgan 164 

Anthony Wayne .......... 167 

Marquis de Lafayette ......... 168 

John Jay . . ^ 204 

John Adams 207 

Thomas Jefferson 212 

Robert Fulton 221 

xi 



xii Illustrations 

PAGE 

Facsimile of Inscription written by Jefferson for his Tombstone 228 

James Madison .......... 230 

Oliver H. Perry 242 

John Quincy Adams 266 

Andrew Jackson .......... 274 

Thomas H. Benton 275 

John C. Calhoun .280 

Nicholas Biddle, President of the Bank of the United States . 282 

General Sam Houston 286 

Henry Clay 289 

Daniel Webster 292 

General Winfield Scott 302 

Stephen A. Douglas 326 

John Brown 337 

Abraham Lincoln .......... 343 

Alexander H. Stephens ........ 347 

Jefferson Davis .......... 354 

General Beauregard ......... 358 

General McClellan . 361 

General Albert Sidney Johnston 365 

Admiral Farragut . . . . . . . . . 367 

John Ericsson, inventor of the Monitor ..... 369 

General Joseph E. Johnston ........ 370 

General "Stonewall" Jackson . . . . .* . . 372 

General Longstreet ......... 376 

General Pickett 387 

Robert E. Lee. His last photograph, taken in 1869 . . . 412 

General Philip H. Sheridan 414 

General William T. Sherman . . . . . . .416 

Valentine's Recumbent Statue over the Tomb of Lee, in the Chapel 

of Washington and Lee University at Lexington, Virginia . 420 

Thaddeus Stevens 432 

Andrew Johnson .......... 437 

Horace Greeley .......... 442 

Rutherford B. Hayes 446 

James A. Garfield 451 

Winfield S. Hancock 452 

Chester A. Arthur 454 

Grover Cleveland , . . . . 456 

Benjamin Harrison . . . . . . . . .461 

William Jennings Bryan 471 



Illustrations 



xiu 



James G. Blaine . 
William McKinley 
Admiral Dewey . 
William T. Sampson 
Winfield Scott Schley 
Theodore Roosevelt 
Elihu Root . 
William H. Taft . 



PAGE 

485 
497 
501 
503 
506 
521 
524 
540 



PART I 

THE COLONIES 

CHAPTER I 
THE NEW WORLD 

As late as the fifteenth century men knew surprisingly little 
of the, planet on which they dwelt. In the maps that have 
come down to us from the Middle Ages the shores Limits of 
of the Mediterranean and of western Europe are geographical 
clearly outlined, but there all accurate geograph- },J^the^ ^* 
ical knowledge ends. The coast line of northern fifteenth 
Europe is badly contracted, Africa is unknown ^ 

below the Tropic of Cancer, and Asia bulges out into an 
ill-defined land of mystery. 

By the middle of the thirteenth century European adven- 
turers had followed the trade routes into eastern Asia and 
brought back marvelous tales of adventure, of vast cities 
and empires, and of untold wealth. The most celebrated 
of these travelers was Marco Polo, a Venetian, who after a 
sojourn of twenty years at the court of the Great Khan at 
Peking returned to Italy at the close of the century and 
wrote an account of his travels which within a few years 
was widely read throughout Europe. 

Cathay, the name given to China by Marco Polo and his 
contemporaries, became a land of intense interest to Euro- 
peans. Polo did not visit Japan, but under the name of 
Cipango he describes the great island lying a thousand miles 
east of Cathay. A copy of his travels with marginal notes 

1 



2 The Colonies 

in the handwriting of Columbus shows how the great navi- 
gator's hnagination was fired by these accounts and explains 
his conviction, when he had reached the West Indies, that 
they were outlying parts of the Great Khan's dominions. 

The theory that the earth was a sphere was perfectly 
familiar to men of learning in the Middle Ages. Aristotle 
held it in the fourth century, B.C., and called atten- 
tat the tion to the fact that the earth's shadow on the 

earth was moon in eclipses was always circular, and that 
a sphere ^ "^ ' 

stars visible in Egypt fell below the horizon of one 

traveling northward. Later Greek and Roman writers 

held the same view, and that the idea was familiar to the 

educated classes of Italy is clearly shown by the fact that 

Dante in the Divine Comedy places his Inferno in the center 

of a spherical earth. It should be remembered, however, 

that the educated class then was far more limited than it is 

to-day and that the belief of the masses was in a flat earth, 

a view to which the Church on Biblical grounds lent the 

weight of its authority. 

Columbus, in common with other navigators, appears to 
have accepted the scientific view without serious question : 
"I have always read," said he, "that the world, comprising 
the land and the water, is spherical, as is testified by the 
investigations of Ptolemy and others, who have proved it 
by the eclipses of the moon and other observations made from 
east to west, as well as by the elevation of the pole from north 
to south." Still there were no convincing geographical 
data to support this theory, and ignorance of the law of 
gravitation, as expounded by Sir Isaac Newton two centuries 
later, made very real to the ignorant sailor the now absurd 
fear that if a ship should sail too far down the sides of the 
earth it would be impossible to sail back to the top. 

The enthusiasm which inspired men to undertake perilous 
voyages of discovery and exploration during the fifteenth 
century was one of the many expressions of the new spirit 



1 liO " 1 40° 120° 1 00° Rcr oof 40 




140° 120° 100° 80° 



60° Lonirilu.le 40°West from 30° Greenwich 0° Lonrit 




C E 



N 



Oriental Trade Routes of the 15 th Century 
Portuguese and Spanish Discoveries 

Oriental Trade Routes 

Voyage of Diaz, MSti 

Voyage of Da Gama, 1498 

■I- -i-^- -4- +••"•-••"«■ First voyage of Columbus, 1492-93 
_i I |_ Magellan's voyage, 1519 



C.i-t fnim 40° Orfcnwi,!, 60' 



100° ■ 120° 



HO" 



100" 



The New World 3 

which marked the period known as the Renaissance. The* 
compass and the astrolabe, which had recently come into 
use, furnished the means, and the desire to find oriental 
new routes of trade between Europe and the Far trade 
East furnished the motive to make this century an era of 
geographical discovery. 

The eyes of Europe, as already noted, were turned not to 
the West, but to the East, from which quarter came the 
most eagerly sought and lucrative articles of commerce. 
Owing to the coarse diet of the day and the lack of variety, 
spices of all kinds were in great demand throughout Europe 
and formed the most important part of the Oriental trade. 
There was also a constant demand for gems, drugs, per- 
fumes, and dyes, as well as for certain articles of manu- 
facture, such as glass, porcelain, metal work, silk and cotton 
fabrics, rugs, and draperies. In return Europe sent to the 
East woolen fabrics, metals, minerals, and coral, but the 
balance of trade was always in favor of the East, and large 
quantities of gold and silver were exported to meet the 
demand for Oriental luxuries. 

The great volume of trade from the East was conveyed by 
Indian merchants to the Mediterranean by two well-known 
routes : one by way of the Red Sea and the Nile interrup- 
to Cairo and Alexandria, and the other by way *\°d"trlde* 
of the Persian Gulf to the mouth of the Euphrates routes and 
and thence by caravan to Bagdad and on to the J^^^ g^"^ 
cities of Asia Minor and the Black Sea. A third route to the 
route led from the central provinces of China over- 1°^'®^ 
land to the region east of the Caspian Sea, and thence either 
by a southerly route to Syria and Asia Minor or by a north- 
erly route to Constantinople. 

In all the principal cities of the Levant forming the western 
terminals of these trade routes were to be found settlements 
of merchants from southern Europe, mostly Italians, who 
gathered up the merchandise of the East and shipped it to 



4 The Colonies 

'their home cities, from which it was distributed throughout 
Europe. The advance of the Ottoman Turks in the four- 
teenth and fifteenth centuries, cuhninating in the fall of 
Constantinople . in 1453, broke up most of the European 
settlements in the eastern Mediterranean and placed the 
Oriental trade under such severe restrictions that it rapidly 
declined. This interruption of the old trade routes started 
the search for an all-sea route to the Indies and resulted in 
the discovery of America. 

Meanwhile the pioneer work in maritime exploration 

was being done by Portugal. About 1420 Prince Henry, 

the fifth son of King John I and known to suc- 

of Prince ceeding generations as the "Navigator," took up 

Henry the his residence on Cape St. Vincent and gathering 

aviga- about him a collection of charts and instruments 
tor 

used in navigation, together with a body of 
experienced sailors, set to work in a thoroughly scientific 
way to explore the west coast of Africa and if possible 
to sail around its southern end. The Madeiras and 
Azores were rediscovered and colonized ; Cape Boyador 
was passed in 1434, Cape Blanco in 1441, and Cape Verde 
in 1445. 

Here the scientific character of the expeditions was diverted 
for some years by the profits of the slave trade, and it was not 
until a quarter of a century after Prince Henry's death that 
Bartholomew Diaz in 1486 rounded the Cape of Good Hope. 
As his sailors refused to go further, the honor of finding the 
long sought sea route to India was reserved for Vasco da 
Gama, who in 1498, six years after Columbus's discovery of 
America, sailed round the Cape to India. In 1500 the Por- 
tuguese fleet of Cabral started on its way to India and strik- 
ing boldly out into the south Atlantic was carried west- 
ward by the current to the coast of Brazil. He sent a ship 
home to report his discovery, and resumed his voyage to 
India. 



The New World 



Of the early Hfe of Columbus little is definitely known. 
This fact is all the more surprising in view of the fullness with 
which his later life is set forth in his own letters, Early life of 
many of which are still extant, and in the writings Columbus 
of his son Ferdinand and his friend Las Casas. Even the 
date of his birth is unknown, though most modern writers 
agree that it occurred about the year 1446. His father was 
a woolen weaver of Genoa. What schooling he had or when 




ToSCANELLl's MaP. 

he gave himself to a seafaring life are questions to which no 
satisfactory answer can be given. It is evident from com- 
ments in his handwriting on the margins of works on geog- 
raphy and travel that no available information on the 
problems of geography and exploration escaped his attention. 
Like so many other seamen of his day with a scientific 
bent Columbus soon drifted to Portugal, where he married 
into the family of one of Prince Henry's navigators. A letter 
from the Florentine astronomer Toscanelli to a friend at the 
Portuguese court first suggested to his mind, so Ferdinand and 
Las Casas tell us, the idea of reaching India by a westward 



6 The Colonies 

voyage. King Alfonso was likewise interested in this sugges- 
tion and both he and Columbus wrote to ToscanelH for further 
hght on the subject. Columbus made a formal appeal to 
Alfonso's successor for ships with which to seek for Cipango 
in the western ocean, but King John considered him visionary 
and refused the necessary aid. 

In 1484 Columbus went to Spain, where for seven long 
years he solicited aid of Ferdinand and Isabella for his under- 
taking. During this period he sent his brother 
receives aid Bartholomew to England to see if he could inter- 
from Queen gg^ Henry VII in the project. The Spanish 
sovereigns were engaged in the long war with the 
Moors and kept Columbus waiting. Finally his patience 
was exhausted and he started for France, but at the instance 
of two friends at court he was recalled just as he was leaving 
the kingdom, and given authority to prepare an expedition, 
the queen promising to pay a large share of the expenses. 
In a formal contract drawn up April 17, 1492, Columbus 
was given the title of admiral and promised the governorship 
of all islands and mainlands which he should discover as 
well as a royalty of ten per cent on the net proceeds of all 
trade with the new regions. 

In the early dawn of Friday, August 3, 1492, Columbus 
sailed from Palos with a little fleet of three vessels, carrying, 
according to one contemporary, ninety, and accord- 
voyage ing to another, one hundred and twenty persons, 
across the Only the larger of the three vessels, the Santa 

Atlfl.iitic 

Maria, was fully decked ; the Pinta and the 
Nina, commanded by the Pinzon brothers, were of the 
caravel class. After a stop of nearly a month at the Canaries, 
where further preparations were made, the little fleet started 
boldly forth and directed its course westward over the bound- 
less deep. 

Fortunately we are able to follow the expedition day by 
day, for the journal kept by Columbus for the king and 



The New World 7 

queen has come down to us in an abridged form in the writings 
of Las Casas. The weather was unusually favorable for the 
voyage, but the sailors finally gave way to their fears and 
it was with difficulty that the admiral could prevent open 
mutiny. Late on the evening of October 11 a flickering 
light was seen ahead and grumbling and fears soon changed 
to hope and eager anticipation while the ships lay to and 
awaited the dawn. 

In the morning they saw before them a small island in the 
Bahamas, called by the natives Guanahani and renamed San 
Salvador by Columbus, probably the one now known as 
Watling Island. Columbus was confident that he had 
reached the Indies and immediately dubbed the natives 
"Indians," an error which was destined to attach this name 
permanently to all the aborigines of America. 

From the Bahamas Columbus sailed to Cuba, which he 
believed to be the far-famed Cipango, and set ashore a Jewish 
interpreter versed in Oriental languages to inquire for the 
court of the Great Khan. Not succeeding in establishing 
communication with that potentate, Columbus went to Hayti, 
which he named Hispaniola, "the Spanish Island." On 
Christmas day the Santa Maria was wrecked, and when a 
little later Columbus started on the homeward voyage with 
the two caravels, he was compelled to leave a force of forty- 
four volunteers in Hayti to await his return. Not one of 
these men survived. 

Columbus arrived in the harbor of Palos March 15, 1493, 
after a stormy voyage, which had compelled him to put in 
for a few days at the mouth of the Tagus and to 
give the first account of his discovery to the king demarcation 
of Portugal. He finally entered Barcelona in drawn by 
triumph and was accorded the highest distinc- ^Q^er vi^' 
tions by Ferdinand and Isabella. The news of the 
discovery spread rapidly and made a great stir in the world. 
Ferdinand and Isabella lost no time in announcing it to 



8 The Colonies 

the Pope and requested him to define the rights of Spain 
so as to avoid conflict with her great maritime rival, 
Portugal. 

In the famous bull of May 4, 1493, Pope Alexander VI 
established an imaginary line of demarcation from north 
to south one hundred leagues west of the Azores and Cape 
Verde Islands. This line recognized the existing rights of 
Portugal along the African coast, but shut her out from inter- 
fering with Spain's discoveries in the western ocean. The 
following year Spain and Portugal agreed by treaty that the 
line should be drawn three hundred and seventy leagues 
west of the Cape Verde Islands, and thus it came to pass 
that Brazil, then undiscovered, ultimately fell to the share 
of Portugal. 

Columbus was to make three more voyages to the new 
world, but he had already reached the zenith of his fortunes 
T and each new voyage left his prestige and power 

voyages of at a lower ebb. On the second (1493-1496) 
Columbus ly^ost of his energies were directed to the coloniza- 
tion of Hayti and the search for gold, though he discovered 
Porto Rico and Jamaica and explored the southern coast of 
Cuba. 

On his third voyage out (1498) he discovered Trinidad 
and the coast of South America. When he arrived at 
Hayti he found the colonists suffering from poverty, disease, 
and factional fights amounting to open insurrection. His 
efforts to restore order resulted in charges against him on the 
part of the insurgents, which led Ferdinand and Isabella to 
supplant him in the governorship. The new governor 
Bobadilla on his arrival put Columbus and his brothers in 
irons and sent them back to Spain (October, 1500). This 
act was unauthorized and when Columbus reached Spain 
the king and queen at once ordered his release. Although 
not restored to the governorship, he was permitted to organize 
another expedition for the purpose of exploration. 



The New World 9 

Meanwhile others had followed in his track and the coast 
of South America had been explored by Hojeda, Pinzon and 
Bastidas from C'ape St. Augustine to Panama, 
a distance of three thousand miles. Vasco da ^55,* f *^?. 

of Columbus 

Gama had furthermore sailed around the Cape and the 
of Good Hope (1498) to India and put Spain's A^^ca"^ 
rival, Portugal, in direct communication with the 
wealth of the East. When Columbus set sail again in 1502 
on his last voyage his main object was to find a passage 
through the mainland to the Indian Ocean. He explored 
the coast line from Honduras to the Isthmus and was finally 
wrecked on the coast of Jamaica. Rescued after a year's 
delay he returned to Spain and died in obscurity at Valladolid 
May 20, 1506. 

Time has on the whole l)een just to Columbus, for despite 
the calumnies of contemporaries and the criticism of later 
historians he holds his place high in the list of the world's 
great heroes. A singular injustice was done him in the name 
applied to the new world. Americus Vesputius, after whom 
it was called, was a Florentine adventurer, who made several 
voyages to the new world, the first probably being with 
Hojeda in 1499. The name America was first applied to 
the South American continent by a German geographer 
Martin AValdseemiiller, who in 1507 published Vesputius's 
account of his voyages. 

The honor of discovering the mainland of North America 
belongs to John Cabot, who, though a Genoese like Columbus, 
sailed under the English flag. He left Bristol in 
May, 1497, in a small vessel with eighteen men, jand of 
and returned in August, reporting the discovery North 
of the mainland, but this may have been only discovered 
Newfoundland. The second Cabot voyage of by John 
1498 has given rise to much dispute, as the ac- 
counts derived from John's son Sebastian have been thor- 
oughly discredited, but there seems little doubt that on 



10 The Colonies 

this second voyage Cabot followed the coast of North America 
as far south as the Carolinas. 

Although so little is definitely known of him, Cabot was 
without doubt one of the boldest of navigators, and on his 
voyages rested England's claims of prior right to North 
America. The Cabots were soon followed by the Corte- 
Real brothers, who under the Portuguese flag in the years 
1500 and 1501 explored the coasts of Newfoundland and the 
adjacent mainland. 

The Spaniards were slow in finding the mainland of North 
America. In 1512 Ponce de Leon, who had conquered and 
served as first governor of Porto Rico, discovered 
expior^ations ^^^ ^^^* coast of Florida, rounded the peninsula, 
of the coast and explored the west coast as far as Apalache 
A °r* Bay, searching for a fountain of perpetual youth, 

of which the Indians had told him. In 1519 
Alonzo de Pineda followed the southern coast of the United 
States all the way from Florida to Vera Cruz. During this 
voyage he discovered the mouth of a great river called by 
him Rio del Espiritu Santo, which has usually been iden- 
tified with the Mississippi, but which was more probably 
Mobile Bay. 

In the meantime two discoveries of world-wide importance 
had been made under the Spanish flag. In 1513 Balboa 
crossed the Isthmus and discovered the Pacific, 
thePadfi^c° ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ Magellan, a Portuguese sailor in the 
by Balboa service of Spain, started on his great voyage 
MageUarT" around South America and across the Pacific. 
He was killed in the Philippine Islands in a fight 
with the natives, but his followers continued the voyage to 
the Spice Islands and returned to Spain by way of the 
Indian Ocean and the Cape of Good Hope, having completed 
the first circumnavigation of the globe. Magellan's achieve- 
ment is regarded by some as equal to that of Columbus both 
in the dangers attending it and in the results, for it proved 



The New World 11 

that the earth was round and that America was a separate 
continent. 

Beyond a few fishing voyages to Newfoundland the 
French took no part in the exploration of the new world 
until after the voyage of Magellan. In 1524 g^^.. 
the Florentine navigator Verrazano, in the service French 
of France, undertook to find a passage through the ®^^ °'^^^^ 
continent in order that he might sail across the North Pacific 
to China. The accounts of his voyage seem to show that 
he entered the Hudson River and Narragansett Bay and 
returned by way of Newfoundland. Ten j^ears later Jacques 
Cartier, a sailor of St. Malo in Brittany, started out with two 
ships to find a passage to the Pacific and entered the mouth 
of the St. Lawrence. On a second voyage in 1535 he pushed 
up the river to the rapids near Montreal, which he named in 
jest Lachine (China) Rapids in memory of the attempt to 
reach China by that route. 

During the quarter of a century following the discovery 
of America Spaniards explored the islands of the West Indies 
and thousands of miles of mainland coast without 
finding any people who had advanced beyond the Mexico by 
state of nature. The Aztec kingdom in Mexico, Cortes, 
with all its wealth and material progress, its 
strange intermingling of refinement and barbarism, remained 
to be revealed by Hernando Cortes, the most daring, in- 
flexible, and resourceful Spaniard of his age. With a force 
of less than five hundred men he landed in INIexico in 1519, 
entered the city six months later, and in spite of reverses 
that would have overwhelmed any man less resolute, com- 
pleted the conquest in three years. 

The marvelous success of Cortes turned the of^the'^hi-°"^ 
tide of exploration to the interior of the conti- teriorofthe 
nent. In 1528 Narvaez landed with three hun- 
dred men near Tampa Bay and proceeded by land as far as 
Tallahassee, where, owing to the hardships of the journey 



12 The Colonies 

and the hostility of the Indians, he turned to the coast 
and constructed five boats in which the party proceeded 
with difficulty to an island off the coast of Texas. Narvaez 
was blown out to sea in one of the boats and was never 
heard from, and only fifteen of the party survived the 
hunger and cold of the winter. Cabega de Vaca, the treas- 
urer and historian of the expedition, after wandering among 
the Indian tribes for years, reached the Gulf of California 
with three companions, and finally, in 1536, arrived at the 
city of Mexico. 

Before De Vaca returned to Spain, Hernando de Soto was 
appointed governor of Cuba and commissioned to conquer 
De Soto and settle Florida, that term then embracing the 
explores the whole southern part of the United States. De 
and dis- Soto left Havana in 1539 with nine vessels, six 
covers the hundred and twenty men, and two hundred and 

I^ississippi "^ 

River, 1539- twenty horses. Landing at Tampa Bay, he 
^541 wandered for two years through Florida, Georgia, 

Alabama, and Mississippi. Finally, on May 8, 1541, he 
discovered the Mississippi River, which he crossed below 
Memphis. After wandering for months through Arkansas, 
De Soto finally turned back to the Mississippi with the inten- 
tion of following its course to the Gulf, but here illness and 
death overtook him. His followers, reduced in numbers by 
one half, finally reached Mexico. 

While De Soto was exploring the southeastern part of 
the United States Coronado was engaged in a similar enter- 
prise in the southwest. De Vaca's reports of 
explores the riches in the interior and the legend of the Seven 
Southwest, Cities led the viceroy of Mexico to send out a 
'* Franciscan monk. Friar Marcos, on an exploring 
expedition. Attended by a negro who had been with De 
Vaca, and a party of Christianized Indians, Friar Marcos 
went from the Gulf of CaKfornia into western New Mexico. 
He saw from a distance one of the Zuni pueblos, which ap- 



The New World 13 

peared to him as large as the city of Mexico and which he 
concluded was the first of the Seven Cities. 

On the return of Friar Marcos a force of three hundred 
Spaniards and eight hundred Indians was soon equipped and 
placed under the command of Francisco de Coronado, who 
set out in February, 1540, with the expectation of rivaling 
the exploits of Cortes. He found that the city reported by 
Marcos was only a pueblo, and, after wandering around as 
far north as Kansas, returned to Mexico after an absence of 
two years. 

Neither Coronado nor De Soto found the wealth they were 
in search of, and the regions they explored had no attractions 
for the Spaniards at the time as places for settlement, but 
their discoveries were of great geographical importance. 
The same year that Coronado returned to Mexico Cabrillo 
explored the coast of California as far as Cape Mendocino. 
Thus within half a century of the first voyage of Columbus 
Spaniards had explored both coasts and a large part of the 
interior of North America as far north as the fortieth parallel. 

Spain had no intention, as we shall see, of allowing others 
to settle in the regions she had explored. In 1562 Admiral 
Coligny, the leader of the Huguenots in France, The French 
sent out an expedition under Jean Ribaut to in Florida, 
form a settlement for the persecuted Protestants ^562-1505 
in the new world. Ribaut explored the east coast of 
Florida and left a party of thirty men, but they soon aban- 
doned the post and were picked up by an English vessel. 

In 1564 Coligny sent out a second expedition under Rene 
de Laudonniere, who formed a settlement and built a fort 
at the mouth of the St. John's River. Some of his followers 
mutinied and went on a plundering expedition to the West 
Indies. This soon stirred the Spaniards to activity. On 
September 6, 1565, a force of 2600 Spaniards under Menendez 
landed on the coast of Florida and founded St. Augustine, 
the oldest city in the United States. The neighboring 



14 The Colonies 

French settlement was completely blotted out, its inhabitants 
butchered in cold blood, and a Spanish fort erected on its 
site. 

The Atlantic seaboard is well suited naturally for what it 
was destined historically to be, — the starting point in the 
The Atlantic colonization of the United States. The broad 
seaboard bays and deep rivers which intersect the coastal 
plain afforded direct water communication between the 
early settlements and Europe, while the Appalachian chain 
of mountains forming its western boundary was a sufficient 
barrier to prevent the early settlers from wandering too far 
inland until the population was fairly compact. It was not 
until the period of the Revolution that the settlers pushed 
over the mountains into Tennessee and Kentucky. 

The interior of the continent is most easily reached by 
way of the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes, and 
The interior ^^^^ ^^ happened that the French explored the 
of the Mississippi Valley before the English crossed the 

reacheTby Alleghanies. Their main route was not by way of 
the Great Lakes Ontario and Erie, but to the headwaters 
^^ of the Ottawa River, then by portage to Lake 

Nipissing, then again by water down the French River to 
Georgian Bay and so to Lakes Huron, Michigan, and 
Superior. 

The upper Mississippi was first reached through Wiscon- 
sin by way of the Fox River, but another route was soon 
developed by portage from the headwaters of the Chicago 
River to the Illinois, along the line of the present Chicago 
Drainage Canal. In the eighteenth century the various 
portages leading from the waters of Lake Erie to the Ohio 
River came into use, but the earlier development of these 
routes was prevented by the hostility of the Iroquois. 

The position of the Iroquois in central New York likewise 
blocked the natural route leading from Canada to the Hud- 
son River. As the line of the Hudson is the principal 




TRIBES 

Mississippi 



The New World 15 

break in the long stretch of mountains from Maine to Ala- 
bama, it was destined to be of great importance from a mili- 
tary as well as froni a commercial point of view. The line of 
Its strategic importance was shown both in the *^® Hudson 
French and Indian wars and in the Revolution. From the 
present site of Albany there was a choice of routes leading 
to Canada. One led from the headwaters of the Hudson 
by way of lakes George and Champlain to the St. Lawrence, 
and the other up the Mohawk River and .across by portage 
to Lake Ontario. 

Further south, population and commerce were both checked 
for a long time at the heads of navigation, and further prog- 
ress was delayed until roads were cut across the 
mountains. Toward the beginning of the Revolu- j^'^^fo^the**" 
tion the routes connecting the headwaters of the Ohio, Ken- 
great rivers east of the mountains with the Te'nnes^ee 
tributaries of the Ohio became of great impor- 
tance to the white man, who in cutting the first rude roads 
through the forest followed closely the well-known Indian 
trails. The principal routes were those through southern 
Pennsylvania leading from the Susquehanna to the Alle- 
ghany; the well-known line of Braddock's march from the 
upper waters of the Potomac to the Monongahela ; the trail 
from the headwaters of the James to the Kanawha, followed 
by Andrew Lewis in his march to Point Pleasant ; and the 
"Wilderness Road," or "Boone's Trail," which led through 
the Cumberland Gap from eastern Tennessee into Kentucky. 

The Indian population of North America has been greatly 
overestimated. There were probably not over four or five 
hundred thousand in the present territory of the 
United States when the white man first appeared. JJlferica* 
The numbers have not greatly decreased, so that Indian: 
it is a mistake to suppose that the Red Man has Jl^ribition** 
been exterminated. He has been pushed back 
by the advancing wave of civihzation and confined largely 



16 The Colonies 

to reservations in the West. He is now being educated, 
admitted to citizenship, and gradually assimilated. 

The distribution of the Indian population in colonial times 
was, of course, quite different from what it is to-day. 
First in importance were the Algonquins, who extended from 
Canada to Virginia and from the Atlantic to the upper 
Mississippi. In the heart of the Algonquin territory, 
extending through the Mohawk Valley in New York, were 
the ",five nations" of the Iroquois, the most cruel and 
formidable warriors on the continent. 

In the Southern States the most important tribes were 
embraced in the famous Creek Confederacy, the principal 
tribes being the Chickasaw,- Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. 
West of the Mississippi the principal tribes were the Sioux, 
who extended from the Mississippi to the Rockies and from 
Arkansas to Canada. 

As a rule the Indians lived in villages that were permanent 
in location. Their life was not nomadic, though at certain 
seasons of the year they ranged over wide areas 
in quest of food. Outside of New Mexico and 
Arizona, where the walls of the pueblos were built of rough 
stone or sun-dried brick, they made little progress in house 
building. As a rule they lived in wigwams made of brush, 
bark, or skins, though the "long houses" of the Iroquois 
were more elaborate and the Cherokee constructed houses 
of logs. 

In all parts of the country they depended largely for 
subsistence on hunting and fishing. This was supplemented 
by berries, roots, and wild fruits, especially in the North, 
and by the cultivation of corn and tobacco. Agriculture 
was more advanced in the South, where, in addition to corn 
and tobacco, beans and squash were raised. With the excep- 
tion of a few articles of copper and gold, the Indians were 
unacquainted with the metals. Their weapons and imple- 
ments were made of wood, stone, or bone. Skill in skin 



The New World 17 

dressing was almost universal ; the art of weaving was 
widely known ; and pottery reached a high state of develop- 
ment in the South and Southwest. Canoes of bark and skin 
were used in some parts of the country, and in others the 
more clumsy dugout. The main weapons both for fighting 
and hunting were the bow and arrow, the tomahawk, the 
knife, and less commonly the javelin. Light shields were 
made of rawhide. Traps for catching fish and animals were 
constructed with no little ingenuity. 

As a hunter the Indian has never had a superior, and as 
a warrior he was stealthy, aggressive, formidable, and cruel. 
When forced to a hand-to-hand encounter he would fight 
to a finish, but as a rule he depended upon a sudden surprise 
rather than an open attack, and was incapable of carrying 
on sustained military operations against the white man. 

TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. Limits of Geographical Knowledge in the Fifteenth Century: 
John Fiske, Discovery of America, Vol. I, Chap. II; E. G. Bourne, 
Spain in America, Chap. I ; J. Winsor, Narrative and Critical 
History of America, Vol. I, Chap. I. 

2. Oriental Trade: Fiske, Vol. I, Chap. Ill; E. P. Cheyney, 
European Background of Anurican History, Chaps. I, II. 

3. Portuguese Discoveries : Fiske, Vol. I, Chap. IV ; Cheyney, 
Chap. IV. 

4. The Voyages of Columbus: Fiske, Vol. I, Chaps. V-VI ; 
Edw. Channing, History of the United States, Vol. I, Chap. I; 
Bourne, Chaps. II-IV; C R. Markham, Life of Christopher 
Columbus. 

5. Exploration of the Coast : Fiske, Vol. II, Chap. VII ; Chan- 
ning. Vol. I, Chaps. II, III; Bourne, Chaps. V-X ; F. Parkman, 
Pioneers of France in the New World, pp. 28-162. 

6. Exploration of the Interior of the Continent : Bourne, Chaps. 
XI-XIII ; L. Farrand, Basis of American History, Chaps. I, II; 
Fiske, Vol. II, Chaps. VIII, XII; Parkman, La Salle and the Dis- 
covery of the Great West. 

7. The North American Indian : Fiske, Vol. I, Chap. I ; Farrand, 
Chaps. V-XVI. 



CHAPTER II 

THE FOUNDATIONS OF ENGLISH COLONIZATION, 1584-1660 

When Cabot discovered the coast of North America in 
1497 EngHsh commerce and seamanship were still in their 

infancy, and three quarters of a century elapsed 
men of the before the nation took the first steps toward 
Elizabethan colonization. Under Elizabeth England aspired 

to commercial rivalry with Spain, whose indus- 
tries had been paralyzed by the wealth of gold that the 
mines of Mexico and Peru had poured into her lap. 
Protestantism became the ruling principle of Elizabeth's 
foreign policy and direct aid was extended to the struggling 
Netherlands in their revolt against Spain, '""'hus ivalry 
developed into open hostility and the religious motive lent 
its aid in producing that great group of seamen who laid 
the foundations of the British sea power and prepared the 
way for the colonization of America. 

In 1562 Sir John Hawkins carried a cargo of slaves from 
Guinea to the West Indies, where he found a ready sale for 
Hawkins them despite the law of Spain which limited the 
and Drake trade to her own subjects. On his third voyage 
in 1567 he was caught by a Spanish fleet in the harbor of 
Vera Cruz on the coast of Mexico and escaped with only 
two of his ships. One of these was commanded by his young 
kinsman Francis Drake, who l^ecame the greatest seaman of 
his age, plundered many a richly laden Spanish galleon, and, 
first of his nation, circumnavigated the globe. Such was the 
terror of Drake's name that for a hundred years he was known 

18 



English Colonization, 1584-1660 



19 



in Spanish annals as "the Dragon," To intercept Spanish 
treasure-ships was a quick road to wealth and there soon 
sprang up a whole navy of privateers manned by men who 
were willing to serve God and their sovereign in this way. 
Still patriotism was the dominant motive with the great 
maritime adventurers of Ehzabeth's reign, as is clearly seen 
when we recall the deeds of Thomas Cavendish, Martin 
Frobisher, Richard Grenville, Lord Charles Howard, Sir 

Humphrey Gilbert, and Sir 
Walter Raleigh. 

Gilbert and Raleigh con- 
ceived the plan of contesting 
Spain's advance in ^j^^ ^^^^^^^ 
the New World by to form a 
planting an English -^o^^ 
colony across the island, 
seas. In 1583, after ^585-1591 
an unsuccessful attempt to es- 
tablish a colony in Newfound- 
land, the gentle and heroic Sir 
Humphrey perished on the 
homeward voyage. The work 
was taken up by his half- 
brother Raleigh, a born cour- 
tier, who by the grace and dignity of his bearing had 
won the heart of the queen. Raleigh sent out an exploring 
expedition to the coast of North Carolina in 1584, naming 
the new realm Virginia in honor of the queen, and the follow- 
ing year nearly two hundred colonists were landed on Roa- 
noke Island under Captain Ralph Lane as governor. The 
next spring, when Drake came by on his way home from a 
cruise in the West Indies, he found them so helpless and dis- 
heartened by the experiences of the winter that he took 
them back to England. A few days later Grenville arrived 
with suppUes sent by Raleigh, but finding none of the settlers 




Sir Humphrey Gilbert. 



20 The Colonies 

he left fifteen men on the island to retain possession and 
returned to England. 

In May, 1587, Raleigh sent out another body of one 
hundred and fifty colonists, including twenty-five women and 
Failure of children, under the painter John White as gov- 
the enter- ernor, with instructions to proceed to Chesapeake 
^"^® Bay ; but when they arrived at Roanoke, although 

none of the men left the year before could be found, they 
decided for some reason to remain there. Here the daughter 
of the governor gave birth to a child, Virginia Dare, the first 
English subject born in America. 

In November Governor White returned to England for 
supplies. He found his countrymen in a state of turmoil 
and excitement, bending every effort to defend their religion 
and their firesides against the formidable armada which 
Spain was preparing for their conquest. The following 
summer the armada was defeated in the channel, but after 
the crisis was passed Raleigh found himself broken in fortune. 
Two expeditions fitted out by him were thwarted in their 
efforts to bear relief to the little settlement and hence it 
was not until 1591 that Governor White returned to Roanoke 
Island. To his dismay he found the fort deserted, and he was 
compelled to return to England with no clew as to the nature 
of the tragedy that had overtaken his daughter and grand- 
daughter. The fate of the colony was never known. 

Gilbert had sacrificed his life, and Raleigh his fortune, 
in the patriotic effort to found a new dominion across the 
The Virginia seas, but the task was too great for individual 
Company enterprise. In order to provide the means for 
White's last voyage Raleigh had been compelled to assign 
part of his rights to others. With the accession of James I 
he was thrown into the Tower, but the project which he 
had so nobly fathered was not allowed to die. 

In April, 1606, a charter was granted by King James in- 
corporating the Virginia Company in two divisions, — one 



English Colonization, 1584-1660 21 

composed of "certain knights, gentlemen, merchants and 
other adventurers" of London, and the other of "sundry 
knights, gentlemen, merchants, and other adventurers" in 
and near Plymouth. The charter provided for two colonies 
in "that part of America, commonly called Virginia," 
lying between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth degrees of 
north latitude. 

The London Company was authorized to plant a colony 
at some point between the thirty-fourth and forty-first 
degrees, and the Plymouth Company at some point between 
the thirty-eighth and forty-fifth degrees, with the provision 
that neither one was to settle within a hundred miles of the 
other. The overlapping of the two zones was evidently 
designed to stimulate rivalry. The grant to each colony 
was to extend along the coast fifty miles north and fifty miles 
south of the point selected for settlement and one hundred 
miles inland. The entire region including the two grants 
was placed by the charter under the general management and 
direction of a council of thirteen members appointed by the 
king, to be known as the Council of Virginia, and the gov- 
ernment of each colony was placed in the hands of a local 
council of thirteen appointed by the council in England 
and subject to its control. 

The Plymouth Company undertook to form a settlement 
on the coast of Maine, and one hundred and twenty settlers 
landed at the mouth of the Kennebec River August 18, 1607, 
under the leadership of George Popham and Raleigh Gilbert, 
but those who survived the hardships of the winter returned 
to England in the spring. The Plymouth Company was un- 
willing to sink any more money in the enterprise, but in 1620 
it was reorganized by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, vSir Francis 
Popham, and Raleigh Gilbert as the Council for New 
England, and under this name we shall come across it again 
in connection with the grants to the settlers of Plymouth 
and Massachusetts Bay. 



The Colonies 



Meanwhile the London Company had founded the first 
permanent Enghsh settlement in America. On December 
The colony 20, 1606, one hundred colonists, all men, em- 
of Virginia barked from London in three ships, the Susan 
Constant, commanded by Captain Christopher Newport, 
the Good-speed, commanded by Captain Bartholomew 

Gosnold, and the Discov- 
ery, commanded by Cap- 
tain John Ratcliffe. Fol- 
lowing the usual route by 
the Canary Islands and 
the West Indies they were 
four months on the voyage 
and on April 26, 1607, 
sighted the Virginia capes, 
which they named Charles 
and Henry after the sons 
of King James. After 
exploring the waters of 
Hampton Roads they pro- 
ceeded about thirty miles 
up the James and landed 
May 14 (May 24, new 
style) on a low island or peninsula, where they erected a 
fort and began a town, named like the river in honor of 
the king. Jamestown was an unfortunate location, malarial, 
destitute of fresh-water springs, and covered with trees and 
tall grass, exposing the little colony to sudden attack from 
the Indians. 

After exploring the James as far as the falls, Newport 
departed for England, leaving one hundred and four settlers 
surrounded by hostile Indians and provided with very scant 
supplies. So great was the suffering and consequent mortal- 
ity that by September only forty-six survived. Furthermore, 
the little colony was split into factions. Of the six members 




Pocahontas. 



English Colonization, 1584-1660 



23 



of the council left by Newport one had died, another had 
been shot for attempted desertion, and now the president, 
Edward Maria Wingfield, was cast into prison by the re- 
maining three and John Ratcliffe elected in his stead. 

One of these three was Captain John Smith, who soon 
became the leading spirit of the colony. Smith was one 
of those men who seek and find romance and captain 
adventure wherever they go. Although only John Smith 
thirty years old he had encountered dangers and performed 
exploits that few men experience in a lifetime. He was 
now put in charge of the stores and managed in some way 
to allay the hostility of the Indians and to procure corn. 

In December, while on 
an exploring expedition 
up the Chickahominy, 
two of his companions 
were killed by the In- 
dians, and he was cap- 
tured and taken before 
Powhatan, the war chief 
of an extensive confeder- 
acy. He was condemned 
to death, and his head 
placed on a stone ready 
for execution. From this 
predicament he was un- 
expectedly rescued by 
Pocahontas, the twelve- 
year-old daughter of the 
chief, and shortly after allowed to return to Jamestown. 

In January, 1608, Newport returned with supplies and 
seventy new settlers. The following summer was jjj^ ^jj^_ 
but a repetition of the preceding one. Of ninety- acter and 
five settlers only fifty survived. In September, ^®"^*^®^ 
Smith, who had spent the summer exploring Chesapeake 




Capt. John Smith. 



M 



The Colonies 



Bay, was made president of the council ; Newport arrived 
with a "second supply" of men and provisions, and con- 
ditions were temporarily improved. During the next year 
Smith ruled with a high hand and kept the colony in order, 
but matle himself unpopular and was finally deposed by the 

remaining members of 
the council, George 
Percy succeeding him 
as president. 

In October, 1609, 
while suffering from a 
gunpowder wound, 
Smith took passage for 
England. In 1614 he 
explored the coasts of 
New England and 
made an excellent map 
of that region. His 
map of Chesapeake 
Bay and its tributaries 
was not supplanted for 
one hundred and fifty 
years. The credibility of his writings has been bitterly 
assailed, especially the story of the three Turks whom he 
slew in single combat earlier in his career, and the Pocahontas 
incident, but he has not failed of able champions to uphold 
his veracity. He was the most conspicuous figure in the 
early history of Virginia, and without his native wit and 
resourcefulness the colony would not have survived. 

In 1609 the London Company secured a sepa- 
rate charter greatly enlarging its grant and au- 
thorizing it to place a governor over the colony. 
The bounds of the colony were extended along 
the coast two hundred miles north and two hun- 
dred miles south of Point Comfort and "up into the land, 




Lord Delaware. 



New charter 
(1609), Lord 
Delaware 
appointed 
governor 



English Colonization, 1584-1()()0 25 

throughout from sea to sea, West and Northwest," a 
clause which later gave rise to much contention. Thomas 
West, Lord Delaware, a peer of the realm, was selected as 
governor, but as he was not ready to go at once Sir Thomas 
Gates was sent out as deputy. 

The winter of 1609-lGlO is known in Virginia history as 
the "Starving Time." When Gates, who had been forced 
by shipwreck to spend the winter in the Bermudas, finally 
reached Jamestown May 23, 1610, he promptly decided to 
abandon the settlement. He had embarked the entire com- 
pany and was proceeding down the river when he met a 
messenger from Lord Delaware announcing his arrival at 
Point Comfort. All returned to Jamestown and began anew 
the painful process of founding a colony. 

In less than a year Lord Delaware fell sick and returned 

to England. He continued to hold the governorship until 

his death in 1618, but during this period he was „ , , 
1 • xr- • • , • r 1 Rule of 

represented in Vn-gmia by a succession ot dep- sir Thomas 

uties : Dale, Yeardley, and Argall. So far the l>aie. ^^n- 
settlers had failed utterly to adapt themselves 
to the conditions of life in their new home and had depended 
on supplies of food from England. During the five years of 
Sir Thomas Dale's rule, 1611-1616, the colonists were under 
martial law and mechanics and gentlemen alike were forced 
to labor under pain of the severest penalties. New settle- 
ments were formed, the colonists protected from the Indians, 
and, most important of all, the common store was abolished 
and every man made to depend on his own labor. " 

The last traces of communism and martial law were done 
away with when Sir George Yeardley arrived in ^j^^ g^.^^ 
Virginia as governor and captain-general April 19, representa- 
1619. He announced that lands were to be dis- semWyin 
tributed among the settlers in tracts of one hun- America, 
dred acres and that the people were to share in ^ ^' 
the making of laws. On July 30, 1619, the first legislative 



26 The Colonies 

assembly in America was convened at Jamestown. It 
consisted of the governor, council, and two burgesses from 
each of the ten plantations or settlements. 

The London Company was fast passing out of the hands of 
merchants like Sir Thomas Smith and coming under the 
control of liberal statesmen like Sir Edwin Sandys, who more 
than any one else is entitled to the honor of being the father 
of representative government in America. In 1619 Sandys 
was elected to succeed Sir Thomas Smith as treasurer or 
president of the Company and would have continued in 
that position had it not been for the hostility of the king, 
who regarded him as the head of the opposition in Parlia- 
ment. When the next annual election came around the king 
sent word to the Company to "choose the devil if you will, 
but not Sir Edwin Sandys," and the Earl of Southampton, 
of like liberal views, was chosen in his stead. 

Since 1616 the tobacco culture had made rapid strides 
in Virginia and the economic future of the colony was 
assured. Between 1619 and 1622 over 3500 
Company °° ^^^ settlers arrived. The Indian massacre of 
deprived of 1622, which cost the lives of 347 men, women, 
1624 ^'' ^^^ children, was a severe blow, and gave the 
king an excuse for charging the Company with 
mismanagement. James's foreign policy was entirely domi- 
nated by his desire to bring about a marriage between his 
son Charles and the Spanish Infanta and he fell completely 
under the sway of Count Gondomar, the Spanish minister 
at London, who was continually intriguing with the enemies 
of the Company, and who told the king that .the meetings of 
the Company were but a "seminary for a seditious parlia- 
ment." 

Finally a writ of quo warranto was issued against the Com- 
pany and its charter formally annulled June 16, 1624. 
Virginia thus became a royal province under the direct 
control of the crown, and while the change proved in the 



English Colonization, 1584-1660 



27 



that f---' 
free 



long run beneficial, Americans should ever hold in grateful 
remembrance the great association which founded the first 
English colony and planted in it the germs of civil liberty. 
The next few years of Virginia history passed without strik- 
ing incident save the "thrusting out" of Sir John Harvey, 
an arbitrary governor of no great ability, who was arrested 
by members of the Assembly and sent back to England. 
In January, 1642, the most famous of the early governors, 
Sir William Berkeley, arrived in the colony. He was a 

typical cavalier, a 
staunch upholder of ll^^^"" 
king and church, who appointed 
thanked God 
there were no 

schools or printing presses in 
Virginia and hoped there would 
not be for a hundred years. The 
Virginians of those days were 
opposed to the high church views 
of Laud and many moderate 
Puritans came to the colony. 
The Puritan settlement in Nan- 
semund county made an appeal 
to New England for ministers and 
in 1642 three arrived in Virginia. The following j^ear Berke- 
ley got the Assembly to pass a severe act against noncon- 
formists and the New England ministers had to leave. The 
second Indian massacre which followed shortly afterwards 
in 1644, in which over three hundred whites perished, was re- 
ferred to by John Winthrop, the governor of Massachusetts, 
as a special act of Providence. 

As the fortunes of the Puritan party rose in England 
Governor Berkeley became more intolerant of Puritanism in 
Virginia, and in 1649, shortly after Charles I was beheaded, 
more than a thousand Puritans left the colony for Maryland. 




Sir William Berkeley, Gov- 
ernor of Virginia. 



The Colonies 



At the invitation of Governor Stone they settled on the Severn 

at a place called by them Providence, but known to later 

generations as Annapolis. 

The founder of Maryland, George Calvert, first Lord 

Baltimore, seems to have been actuated by two motives; 

first, the creation of a 
The found- ' ., . 

ing of great tanuly domain, 

Maryland, ^nd second, the es- 
talDlishment of a place 
of refuge for Catholics. In 1627 
he took his family and a group 
of settlers to Newfoundland, but 
two years later he went south in 
search of a warmer climate, and 
arrived at Jamestown in October, 
1629. He was not a welcome 
guest, though the council appears 
to have treated him with respect, 
if we may judge by the following 
entry on the record: "Thomas 
Tindall to be pilloried two hours for giving my Lord Balti- 
more the lie and threatening to knock him down." 

Lord Baltimore, who was a favorite of James I, had been 
a member of the Virginia Company, but of the faction 
TheMarv- which opposed Sir Edwin Sandys and the Earl of 
land grant, Southampton. In addition to this he was a 
^^^ Catholic and when it became known that he 

contemplated a grant for himself south of the James River, 
Secretary Claiborne was sent to England to oppose his 
application. Claiborne was only partially successful, for 
in 1632 Lord Baltimore received a grant on the north side 
of the Potomac, extending as far as the fortieth parallel, 
and stretching from the meridian of the source of the Potomac 
on the west to the Atlantic Ocean on the east. The new 
colony was named Terra Marice, or Maryland, in honor of 




Lady Berkeley, wife of Sir 
William Berkeley. 



English Colonization, 1584-1G60 



29 



Queen Henrietta Maria, though Terra Marice had, no doubt, 
a special significance to Catholics. 

George Calvert died before the charter passed the seal, 
but it was confirmed to his son Cecilius Calvert, second 
Lord Baltimore. By the terms of the charter _ 

. /_ , , , 1 1 p The palati- 

the government or Maryland was modeled alter nateform 
that of the bishopric of Durham, a county palat- °* govern- 
inate on the Scottish border, whose bishop as 
ruler of the county had been vested in early times with 
almost absolute powers for the protection of the border 
against the forays of 
the Scotch. The po- 
sition of Lord Balti- 
more as proprietor of 
Maryland was that of 
a great feudal land- 
holder of the Middle 
Ages. To the king as 
overlord he had to de- 
liver two Indian ar- 
rows at Windsor Castle 
each year in Easter 
week, and a fifth part 
of all the gold and 
silver mined in the 
colony. The principal 
limitation upon his 
power was that he 
could not make laws 
without the advice and consent of the freemen, xhesettie- 
The first colonists were sent over in two ships, ™^"* f * ^*- 
the Ark and the Dove, and began a settlement 1634, and 
at St. Mary's in lower Maryland on a branch of t^« dispute 
the Potomac March 27, 1634. Among them were borne over 
both Protestants and Catholics, including two Kent island 




Cecilius Calvert, Sorond Baron Baltimore. 



30 The Colonies 

Jesuit priests, and they were under the command of Leonard 
Calvert, brother of the proprietor, as governor. 

St. Mary's was not the first settlement in Maryland. 
William Claiborne had settled a hundred men in 1631 on 
Kent Island, and this settlement was represented by a 
delegate in the Virginia House of Burgesses. Maryland 
had been carved out of the Virginia grant of 1609, and the 
Virginians resented Lord Baltimore's intrusion, so that when 
Leonard Calvert called upon Claiborne to recognize Lord 
Baltimore's authority over Kent Island, the council of Vir- 
ginia advised him to disregard the demand. After several 
armed conflicts between the Kent Islanders and the settlers 
of St. Mary's, in which blood was shed on both sides, the 
Commissioners of Plantations finally decided the dispute 
in favor of Lord Baltimore. 

It is only in a restricted sense that Maryland can be 
spoken of as a Catholic colony. The proprietor was of that 
Religious faith and most of the prominent and influential 
toleration families continued to be Catholic, but they were 
always in the minority. As early as 1641 three fourths of 
the settlers were Protestant. From the outset Lord Balti- 
more pursued a broad policy of religious toleration, and 
herein rests his chief claim to distinction. The provisions 
of the charter throw little light on the religious question. 
Its references to the religious status of the colony were 
indefinite and ambiguous, probably intentionally so, but 
the king undoubtedly understood that the laws against 
Catholics in England were not to be enforced in Maryland. 
The exclusion of Protestants on the other hand would cer- 
tainly have- involved the proprietor in serious difficulty, 
but it is certain that he never contemplated such a course. 

The policy pursued in Maryland under Lord Baltimore's 
government was far in advance of the practices in England 
and in the other colonies, and to him full credit is due. In 
1649, when he felt the control of the province slipping from 



English Colonization, 1584-1660 31 

his grasp, he tried to perpetuate this policy by having it 
enacted in a statute. This celebrated act provided that no 
person "professing to believe in Jesus Christ shall from hence- 
forth be any ways troubled, molested or discountenanced, 
for or in respect of his or her religion, nor in the free exercise 
thereof." This was a long stride towards religious liberty, 
although Jews and infidels were not included. 

In the settlement of Virginia rivalry with Spain, commer- 
cial gain, and the spirit of novelty and adventure were the 
dominant motives. The religious impulse was ^j^^ Puritan 
present, but it played a subordinate part. Mary- migration to 
land was founded in part as a place of refuge for ™®"*^* 
Catholics, but the majority of the settlers seem to have come 
there for other reasons. New England, on the other hand,. 
was born of the spiritual unrest of the seventeenth century, 
and religious motives dominated all others. The conditions 
that led to the great Puritan migration to America were the 
outgrowth of the Protestant Reformation. The separation 
of the English church from Rome took place in the reign of 
Henry VIII and the reform in doctrine began under Edward 
VI. Then followed the Catholic reaction under Mary, 
when hundreds of English Protestants sought refuge in 
Switzerland and in Germany. 

When Elizabeth came to the throne she undertook to 
reestablish the national church on a basis broad enough to 
include all her subjects, and Parliament passed the acts of 
Supremacy and Uniformity. But this policy did not please 
everybody. On the one hand thpre remained a substantial 
body of English Catholics who clung steadfastly to their 
allegiance to the Pope, and on the other hand there were 
the returned refugees, imbued with the teachings of Calvin, 
who protested against the pomp and ritual of the Anglican 
chvu-ch and set to work to purify it of all survivals of Ro- 
manism. This was the beginning of the Puritan party, 
which was soon further differentiated from other parties 



32 The Colonies 

by austerity in morals and strict Sabbath observance. 
Although merely a party within the church many of the 
Puritans refused to observe the prescribed forms of worship 
and became known as Nonconformists. In course of time 
some of the more extreme withdrew and formed separate 
congregations, from which they were known as " Separatists, " 
later Independents or Congregationalists. 

Before the close of Elizabeth's reign many of these people 
had been forced by persecution to flee from England and 
seek refuge in Holland. When James I came to the throne 
the Puritans hoped that his Presbyterian rearing would 
incline him to their side, but such hopes were short-lived. 
He declared in answer to their petitions : " I shall make 
.them conform themselves, or I will harry them out of the 
land, or else do worse," — a decision fraught with mighty 
consequences for the new world. 

In 1607 a little congregation of Separatists at Scrooby in 
eastern England resolved to go to Amsterdam, where a 
London congregation had found refuge several 
Separatists Y^ars before. Within a year or two numbers of 
seek refuge them had Succeeded in making the move. But 
1607°^^^"'^' schism quickly breeds schism, and the two con- 
gregations soon found that they were not of the 
same way of thinking. As the result of doctrinal differences 
the Scrooby congregation moved to Leyden, where they 
were soon joined by exiles from other parts of England. 

In a few years this little group of Englishmen grew dis- 
couraged and hearing favorable reports from Virginia, turned 
their eyes toward America. Permission was obtained from 
the London Company under a land patent -to settle in its 
territory. Sir Edwin Sandys, who befriended them, tried 
to persuade the king to grant them a charter recognizing 
their religious rights, but the most he could obtain was the 
promise that "he would connive at them and not molest 
them, provided they carried themselves peaceably." London 



Endish Colonization, 1584-1660 33 



'to 



merchants furnished £7000 for the enterprise under a joint 
stock arrangement, by which shares were to be paid for in 
money at £10 each or by personal service. 

Carver, Bradford, and Brewster were put in charge of the 
Pilgrims. John Robinson with the larger part of the Ley den 
congregation remained behind intending to follow ^j^^ coming 
later. The emigrants left Delft Haven in the ofthePii- 
Speedwell in July, 1620, and proceeded to South- ^"™^' 
ampton, where the Mayflower, a larger vessel, was waiting 
to join them with a party of emigrants from England. When 
they put to sea again it was soon found that the Speedwell 
was too leaky to make the voyage, so they had to put back, 
and it was not until September 6 that the Mayflower finally 
started on her memorable voyage alone, with one hundred 
and two passengers. They intended to settle at some 
point south of the Hudson, but the weather was too bad 
for accurate observations and when they sighted land they 
were off Cape Cod. They started southward but were 
driven back by roaring breakers and sought shelter in the 
harbor now known as Provincetown. The site of Plym- 
outh across the bay was finally selected as a suitable place 
for a settlement and here the Pilgrims landed December 20, 
1620. 

Before disembarking they signed a compact aboard the 
Maijflower constituting themselves a "civill body pohtick, " 
and agreeing to be bound by such laws and Years of 
ordinances as should from time to time be hardship 
adopted for the general good of the colony. John Carver 
was chosen governor. When his death occurred a few 
months later, the office was conferred on William Bradford, 
who held it almost continuously until his death in 1657. 
The first few years were years of intense suffering. More 
than half of those who came over in the Mayflower perished 
during the first winter. In the autumn of 1621 a ship 
arrived with thirty-five new settlers and a land patent from 



34 The Colonies 

the Council for New England allowing one hundred acres 
for every settler. 

Henceforth the little colony had to shift for itself, for 
it received little aid from its London partners. A few years 
A self- later it bought out their interests and became 

governing in fact a self -governing community. The 
community governor and assistants were elected by a primary 
assembly of all freemen, called the "General Court/' which 
also passed laws. In 1638 the representative system was 
adopted and henceforth laws were enacted by a body com- 
posed of the governor and assistants, and delegates from the 
towns, — four from Plymouth and two from each of the 
other towns. 

The founding of Massachusetts (1628-1630) and its re- 
markable growth completely overshadowed Plymouth, and 
the details of its subsequent history are not of much impor- 
tance. We have gone into its early history at length because 
it was the second step in the founding of the United States 
and paved the way for the rapid development of New 
England. Furthermore Plymouth exercised a profound 
influence on the moral and religious life of Massachusetts, 
notably in determining the Congregational form of church 
government. 

The first step in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay 

colony was taken in March, 1628, when John Endicott and 

five associates secured from the Council for New 

The settle- 
ment of England a patent conveying to them a strip of 

Massachu- territory lying between the Charles and the 
setts Bay ' _ . 

Merrimac and extending westward to the Pacific 

Ocean. In June a party of colonists was sent out with John 

Endicott as governor. They arrived September 6 at Naum- 

keag, where Roger Conant and a few followers had settled 

two years before. The "Old Planters" were at first not 

disposed to recognize the claims of the newcomers, but they 

soon came to terms, and to commemorate this peaceful 



English Colonization, 1584-1660 35 

adjustment, changed the name of the place to Salem. There 
were several other settlements along the Massachusetts 
coast which fell within the new grant, over which Endicott 
soon asserted his authority. 

On March 4, 1629, the friends of the new enterprise re- 
ceived from the king a charter which constituted them 
a body corporate under the title of "The Governor 
and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England." 
The management of the Company was placed in the 
hands of a governor, a deputy, and eighteen assistants, who 
were to be elected annually by the freemen, or members' 
of the corporation. The Company was given full power 
to make laws and regulations for the government of the 
colony, provided they were not contrary to the laws of 
England. 

The year 1629 was the beginning of a dark period in the 

history of England, — the personal government of Charles 

I. For the next eleven vears Parliament held ^ , 

111'- 1 -j^ -1 Dark out- 

no meetmgs and the king ruled arbitrarily look for 

through the Court of Star Chamber and the Puritans in 

. England 

High Commission. With Eliot and other leaders 
of the opposition languishing in the Tower and the adminis- 
tration of affairs falling into the hands of Strafford and Laud, 
leaders of the high church party, the outlook for Puritanism 
was dark indeed. 

Under these circumstances the members of the Mas- 
sachusetts Company conceived the bold idea of migrating 
in a body to New England and taking their charter with 
them. As the charter did not specify any particular place 
for holding the meetings of the Company, there appeared to 
be no legal obstacle in the way of the transfer. A new set 
of officers was, therefore, elected so as to place the control of 
the Company in the hands of those who were willing to mi- 
grate, and John Winthrop, a wealthy gentleman of Suffolk, 
was chosen governor. 



36 



The Colonies 



In the spring of 1630 a fleet of eleven ships, bearing 
Winthrop and a large company of emigrants, sailed for 
Rapid Massachusetts, and arrived at Salem, June 12. 

growth of Many of these settlers, unhke those of the pre- 

7^ fl S S £L cll tl ~ 

setts, 1630- ceding year, were persons of education and high 
1642 position. They found the Salem colony in a sad 

plight; over eighty had died during the previous winter, 
and the survivors were weak and suffering for lack of food. 

Winthrop as governor of 
the Company super- 
seded Endicott, and soon 
moved with most of the 
new settlers to Charles- 
town, in the neighbor- 
hood of which there were 
already several settle- 
ments. The winter of 
1630-1631 was unusually 
severe and the settlers 
suffered many hardships. 
During the next year 
few new settlers arrived, 
but from 1633 to 1640 the 
numbers increased rap- 
idly. Between 1628 and 1640 more than 20,000 Englishmen 
came to New England, the great majority to Massachusetts. 
As this was largely the result of the high church policies of 
Laud, it has been suggested that he is entitled to be called 
the founder of New England. With the outbreak of the Civil 
War in England the great Puritan migration came to an end. 
In fact some of those who had come to America returned to 
England to take up arms against the king. The growth of 
Massachusetts Bay was more rapid than that of any other 
colony. In 1645 its population was over 16,000, more than 
that of all the other EngHsh colonies combined. 




John Winthrop. 



English Colonization, 1584-1660 37 

Between 1636 and 1638 several scattered settlements were 
made in Rhode Island and Connecticut hy religious refugees 
from Massachusetts, illustrating what Edward Roger 
Eggleston calls "the centrifugal force of Puritan- Williams 
ism." Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, the founders 
of Rhode Island, were expelled from Massachusetts by 
the formal action of the authorities, while the founders of 
Connecticut left of their own accord because they were 
dissatisfied with religious and political conditions in the 
older colony. Roger Williams, a master of arts of Pem- 
broke College, Cambridge, came to Massachusetts in 1631 
and was invited to the church at Salem, Here he made a 
favorable impression by his ability and eloquence, but 
within two months he began questioning the validity of 
land titles not derived from the Indians and the right of 
the magistrates to impose penalties for Sabbath brealdng. 
Governor Winthrop complained to the Salem church and 
Williams soon removed to Plymouth, but two years later 
returned to Salem, and soon called down upon himself the 
wrath of the Massachusetts authorities. Finally in October, 
1635, he was banished from the colony by the General Court. 

After a winter of great privation spent among the Poka- 
noket Indians he was joined in the spring by a few friends 
from Salem and in June, 1636, founded Provi- Thefound- 
dence, the first settlement in Rhode Island, ing of Rhode 
Two years later Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, who was ^^'"°° 
banished from Massachusetts on account of her peculiar 
religious views, took refuge at Providence, and then crossing 
over with her followers to the island of Aquidneck formed 
the settlement at Portsmouth. 

In 1639 William Coddington headed a secession from Ports- 
mouth and founded Newport, and in 1643 Samuel Gorton, 
the most persistent heretic of them all, after being expelled 
in turn from Boston, Plymouth, Portsmouth, and Provi- 
dence, founded Shawomct, the later Warwick. In 1644 Roger 



38 The Colonies 

Williams went to England and secured a charter uniting 
all these settlements and granting them the privilege of 
adopting a suitable form of self-government. 

A few years before this Roger Williams had become a 
Baptist and Rhode Island soon became a Baptist strong- 
. hold. There was a strong tendency on the part 

toleration in of some to follow the example of the Anabaptists 
Rhode of Germany and the Low Countries in holding 

that freedom of conscience involved freedom from 
civil restraint, but Roger Williams took a firm stand against 
this doctrine from the first, and his greatest service to man- 
kind was in demonstrating the possibility of founding a 
commonwealth in which liberty of conscience could be 
permitted without loosening the bonds of civil society. 

The first European settlement within the present state of 
Connecticut was made by the Dutch, who established a 
^^ ^ . trading post and built a fort on the Connecticut 

The begin- 
nings of River where Hartford now stands, in the early 

Connecticut, summer of 1633. In October of the same year 
1033-1030 

some traders from Plymouth established a rival 

post ten miles higher up the river at Windsor. Both the 
Dutch and Plymouth settlers were destined to be dispos- 
sessed by emigrants from Massachusetts, who began form- 
ing settlements in the summer of 1635, but the real move- 
ment began the next year. 

Rev. Thomas Hooker, pastor of the Newtown (Cam- 
bridge) church, was the leader of this exodus. Hooker was 
a graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and a man of 
liberal views which had been cultivated through a residence 
in Holland. He came to Massachusetts in 1633 and the 
following year his congregation at Newtown petitioned the 
General Court to allow them to move to some new point 
within the bounds of Massachusetts. The petition was 
rejected at this time, but granted reluctantly the following 
year. A variety of motives appear to have influenced the 



English Colonization, 1584-1660 39 

founders of Connecticut in deserting Massachusetts. Hooker 
objected to the close union of church and state ; others 
were doubtless attracted by the fertile valley of the Con- 
necticut. 

The emigration was not of individuals, but of organized 
congregations. By the fall of 1636 about 800 people were 
settled in the three towns of Hartford, Wethers- 
field, and Windsor. They were squatters merely, « punda- 
without land patent or charter fr.om the king of mental 
England. Although beyond the bounds of Mas- fg'^g*"' 
sachusetts, they were governed for a time by 
magistrates who acted under a commission from the General 
Court of that colony, but in January, 1639, the freemen of 
the three towns met at Hartford and adopted the "Funda- 
mental Orders, " a document since famous as "the first 
written constitution framed by a community, through its 
own representatives, as a basis for government." It did 
not make church membership a condition of citizenship, 
as did Massachusetts, and it contained no recognition of 
any superior authority in England. From this time forth 
these river towns were a self-governing community under 
the name of Connecticut. 

In October, 1635, John Winthrop, Jr., arrived from Eng- 
land with a commission as governor of the "river Connecti- 
cut in New England" and formed a settlement at saybi^ok, 
the mouth of the river which he called Saybrook ^^35 
in honor of his patrons. Lord Brooke and Lord Say, who 
several years before had received an indefinite grant of land 
south of Massachusetts extending from the Narragansett 
River to the South Sea. Hardly had he completed the forti- 
fications of the place in the spring of 1636 when a Dutch 
vessel arrived from New Amsterdam with the intention of 
occup3dng the mouth of the river and blocking the trade 
outlet of the English settlements higher up. The Dutch 
arrived too late, and thus Winthrop saved the control of 



40 The Colonies 

the river for the English. His authority over the upper 
settlements was never more than nominal, though his rela- 
tions with them were friendly, as was shown during the 
Pequot War, in the course of which the Indian tribe of that 
name, which had been harrying the Connecticut settlements, 
was exterminated and its territory appropriated. 

In 1644 Saybrook was sold to Connecticut by one of the 
surviving associates of Lords Brooke and Say and the 
Theexpan- colony soon expanded in other directions also. 
sionof The same year Southampton on Long Island was 

Connecticut rj^^nexed and five years later Easthampton. By 
1653 Connecticut had twelve towns. 

The settlement of New Haven, made in 1638, was for 
many years a separate and distinct colony. The founders 
were John Davenport, a noted London preacher. 
Haven and Theophilus Eaton, a wealthy merchant, 

colony, ^ho was One of his parishioners. They arrived 

at Boston in 1637, in the midst of the Hutchin- 
sonian controversy, and in spite of every inducement that 
was offered them to remain in Massachusetts proceeded to 
Long Island Sound and founded New Haven. They had no 
charter of any kind, and their only right to the soil was 
based on purchases from the Indians. 

In 1639 the free planters met in a barn, and after Daven- 
port ♦had preached from the text, "Wisdom hath builded 
her house; she hath hewn out her seven pillars," they 
proceeded to adopt a set of resolutions binding them to 
be governed by the Scriptures as a sufficient guide in all 
the affairs of life and providing for the selection of seven 
men as "pillars" of the new church and state. Only church 
members were to be admitted as free burgesses. On this 
basis the "seven pillars" proceeded to organize a Bible 
commonwealth of the extremest type. 

A general court was organized to meet once a year for the 
election of a governor and assistants, in whose hands was 




NEW ENGLAND 
IN 1640 



English Colonization, 1584-1660 41 

placed the entire administration of affairs. They were to be 
guided by the laws of Moses. Trial by jury was not recog- 
nized because not found in the Mosaic code, ^j^^ Mosaic 
Other towns were soon established in the neigh- code en- 
borhood: Guilford, Milford, and Stamford, all ^°"'^'^ 
modeled more or less after New Haven. In 1643 dread of 
attack from the Indians and the Dutch caused these towns 
to unite with New Haven. Later Southold on Long Island, 
Bradford, and Greenwich joined the confederacy. Thus 
constituted, the colony of New Haven continued its separate 
existence until 1662. 

In 1622 Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason 
received from the Council for New England a grant of the 
country between the Merrimac and the Kennebec New Hamp- 
rivers. Both were Episcopalians and friends of ^^^e^*^ 
the king, and their interests in the new enter- granted to 
prise were mainly commercial. In 1623 they go^^^^J^*"^ 
established settlements or trading posts at the 1622 
mouth of the Piscataqua (later Portsmouth) and at 
Cocheco (later Dover) within the present limits of New 
Hampshire, and within a short time fishing stations were 
established at Saco Bay, Casco Bay, and other points 
in Maine. In 1629 Mason obtained from the Council for 
New England a separate grant of the territory between the 
Merrimac and the Piscataqua and named it New Hamp- 
shire, and ten years later Gorges obtained a royal charter 
confirming his claims to the territory between the Piscataqua 
and the fCennebec (Maine). 

Massachusetts claimed jurisdiction over the whole region 
of these grants under the interpretation which she put upon 
her charter, namely, that her northern boundary ^j^^ ^ 
was a line drawn due east and west from a point chusetts 
three miles north of the most northerly point of the *^^*'™ 
Merrimac, and she encouraged her citizens to settle in the 
disputed territor^^. After the death of Mason in 1635 his 



42 The Colonies 

heirs dedined to give further pecuniary aid to the New 
Hampshire settlements and they were left to shift for them- 
selves. Settlers from Massachusetts soon came in and in 
1638 two new towns were founded, Exeter by followers of 
Anne Hutchinson, and Hampton by men from Massachu- 
setts and England. 

A period of petty controversy and strife ensued which Mas- 
sachusetts used to her advantage, for in 1641 the New Hamp- 
shire settlements were, with the consent of the majority of the 
inhabitants, annexed to her. In 1643 Dover, Portsmouth, Ex- 
eter, and Hampton were organized with Salsbury and Haver- 
hill as the county of Norfolk. The Mason heirs later revived 
their claims, and as a result of the disputes that ensued New 
Hampshire was erected into a royal province in 1679. 

Massachusetts was equally persistent and more successful 
in asserting her claim to Maine. Other grants conflicting 
Massachu- ^^^^ ^^^* ^^ Gorges had been made, and after 
setts se- his death in 1647 everything was in a state of 
cures Maine ^Q^fusion. Massachusetts again stepped in and 
under Cromwell's rule extended her sway over all the towns 
of Maine. After the Restoration Charles II took Maine 
away from Massachusetts and recognized the Gorges claim, 
but later the younger Ferdinando Gorges sold out his interests 
to Massachusetts, which again took possession, although 
the king refused to sanction the transfer. Massachusetts, 
however, ignored his objections and held on to Maine. Her 
title was finally confirmed in the charter granted by William 
and Mary in 1691. 

In May, 1643, at the suggestion of the Massachusetts 
General Court, commissioners from Massachusetts, Con- 
TheNew necticut, Plymouth, and New Haven met at Bos- 
England ton and formed the New England Confederation. 
tion^i643-" ^^^ purpose was protection against Indian 
1684 attacks or the encroachments of the Dutch during 

the Civil War then raging in England. 



English Colonization, 1584-1660 43 

The business of the Confederation was to be carried on by 
eight commissioners, two from each colony, and the vote of 
six of the eight was to prevail. In 1653 Massachusetts 
refused to comply with the vote of the commissioners to 
raise soldiers for the Dutch war. That colony also refused 
to permit Connecticut to tax the Massachusetts people at 
Springfield for the defense of the mouth of the river, although 
the six commissioners of the other colonies decided that they 
should be taxed. 

The domination of Massachusetts caused the decline of 
the Confederation, and on the absorption of New Haven by 
Connecticut in 1662 it ceased to be of much importance, 
though meetings were held occasionally until 1684. The 
Confederation, however, had served a good purpose in re- 
straining both the Indians and the Dutch. The articles 
contained a provision for the rendition of fugitive servants, 
very similar to the later fugitive slave laws. 

In 1651 Parliament passed a navigation act the object 
of which was to exclude foreign vessels from trade with the 
colonies and to limit English commerce as far as 
possible to English and colonial ships. This of Puritan 
regulation bore heavily upon the Dutch in whose supremacy, 
hands was a large part of the carrjdng trade, and 
led to war between England and Holland (1652-1654). 
The Dutch were defeated and made peace just in time to 
save New Netherland from conquest. 

During the Civil War the New England colonies refrained 
from openly espousing the cause of Parliament and paid lit- 
tle attention to its authority, though many colo- yj^. .^^^ 
nists returned to England and bore arms against submits to 
the king. The Virginians paid no attention to J'iy'c^m-" 
the orders of Parliament and when Charles I missioners, 
was executed the assembly passed an act recog- ^^^^ 
nizing his son Charles II as king. Charles II was also pro- 
claimed in Maryland though without Lord Baltimore's 



44 The Colonies 

knowledge. In 1650 Parliament passed an ordinance de- 
claring that Virginia and the Bermudas "are and ought to be 
subordinate to and dependent on England," and prohibiting 
foreign vessels from trading with them. 

Finally in 1651 the English authorities appointed com- 
missioners and dispatched an armed force to reduce the 
colonies in Chesapeake Bay. Governor Berkeley made 
active preparations for resistance but when the expedition 
arrived he quietly surrendered his authority and retired to 
his plantation where he remained until 1660, when he again 
resumed the governorship. The Assembly meanwhile 
organized a provisional government by electing Richard 
Bennett governor and restored Claiborne to his old post of 
secretary from which he had been removed by Berkeley. 

The commissioners then proceeded to Maryland and 
deposed Governor Stone. The Puritans who had been 
Affairs in expelled from Virginia by Governor Berkeley 
Maryland made poor return for the kindness they had 
received in Maryland. An assembly dominated by them 
and from which the Catholics were excluded repealed the 
toleration act of 1649. In 1655 Stone made an effort to 
regain control of affairs, but he and his Cathohc supporters 
were defeated by the Puritans under William Fuller in a 
pitched battle on the Severn. Lord Baltimore, however, had 
acknowledged Cromwell's rule and two years later an agree- 
ment was reached and his authority again recognized. 

During the period 1640-1660 the population of Virginia 

and Maryland increased at a far greater rate than at any 

other period in their history. In Virginia the 

Growth of increase was from 7600 to 33,000, and in 

population ,^, 

in the Maryland from 1500 to 8000. The immigra- 

coionies ^- ^^ Virginia at this time was to a large ex- 

1640-1660 *= 1 • 1 r 

tent cavalier m character; that is, made up 01 

people of royaUst sympathies. By 1660 Virginia had out- 
stripped Massachusetts in population, — 33,000 to 25,000, — 




Virginia 

and Maryland 

1650 



English Colonization, 1584-1660 45 

and Virginia continued to hold the first place in population 
until after the Revolution. The population of the colonies 
at this time was mainly English, with a few Scotch, Irish, 
and Huguenot settlers. In the Dutch province of New 
Netherland there were at this time (1660) about 6000 souls, 
about half of them English, the rest mainly Dutch and 
Swedes. A few negro slaves were to be found in all the 
colonies. 

TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. English Seamen of the Elizabethan Age : Fiske, Old Virginia 
and Her Neighbors, Vol. I, pp. 1-28 ; Channing, History of the 
United States, Vol. I, Chap. V; L. G. Tyler, England in America, 
Chap. I ; J. A. Froude, English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century. 

2. Raleigh's Attempt to Colonize America: Tyler, Chap. II 
Fiske, Vol. I, pp. 28-40 ; Channing, Vol. I, pp. 124-130. 

3. The Settlement of Virginia: Fiske, Vol. I, Chaps. II-VII 
Tyler, Chaps. III-Vl ; Channing, Vol. I, Chaps. VI-VIII. 

4. The Founding of Maryland: Fiske, Vol. I, Chaps. VIII, IX 
Tyler, Chaps. VII, VIII; Channing, Vol. I, Chap. IX; 
W. H. Browne, George and Cecilius Calvert, Barons Baltimore. 

5. The Puritan Migration to America : E. P. Cheyney, European 
Background of American History, Chaps. XII, XIII ; Channing, 
Vol. I, Chaps. X-XII ; Tyler, Chaps. IX-XIII ; Fiske, Beginnings 
of New England, pp. 1-110; Edw. Eggleston, Beginners of a Nation, 
pp. 98-219. 

6. Rhode Island and Connecticut : Channing, Vol. I, Chaps. 
XIII, XIV; Tyler, Chaps. XIV, XV; Fiske, Beginnings of New 
England, pp. 122-152. 

7. Puritan Supremacy in England and its Effect on the Colonies : 
Channing, Vol. I, Chap. XVIII; Fiske, Old Virginia, Vol. I, 
Chap. X ; Fiske, Beginnings of New England, pp. 174-226. 



CHAPTER III 



A CENTURY OF GROWTH AND EXPANSION, 1660-1760 

The restoration of Charles II in 1660 marks a new era 
in English colonization. The king and the brilliant group 
Th 1 nial °^ advisers who surrounded him had been im- 
policy of the poverished by exile and turned to colonial enter- 
Restoration pj.jgg ^g Q^ means of building up British commerce 
and restoring their individual fortunes. The men most 
conspicuous in developing the new colonial system were the 

Earl of Clarendon, the 
Duke of Albemarle, An- 
thony Ashley Cooper 
(later Earl of Shaftes- 
bury), Lord Arlington, 
Baron Berkeley, brother 
of the governor of Vir- 
ginia, and Sir George 
Carteret. They passed 
new navigation acts, de- 
veloped a better system 
of colonial administra- 
tion, and tried to bring 
the colonies under closer 
control, conquered and 
annexed New Nether- 
land, granted new char- 
ters to Rhode Island and 
Connecticut, founded the proprietary colonies of New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, Delaware and the Carohnas, and organized 
the Hudson Bay Company. 

46 




Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon. 



A Century of Expansion 47 

The navigation act of 1660, like Cromwell's act of 1651, 
on which it was based, was aimed in part at the Dutch cany- 
ina; trade. It also introduced a new principle. 

T 1 .. , 1 • . • , c \^ 1 • The naviga- 

It not only reenacted m a stricter lorm the ship- tion acts of 
ping clause, limiting colonial commerce to English i66oand 
and colonial vessels, but provided further that 
certain "enumerated articles," sugar, tobacco, cotton, and 
dyewoods, could be shipped only to England. The object 
of this restriction was to provide raw materials for English 
manufacturers. 

A later act of 1663 went a step further and provided that 
with a few exceptions no goods from foreign countries could 
be shipped to the colonies except through English ports. 
Thus the colonies were to provide the raw material for the 
mother country and buy all their manufactured goods from 
her. The colonies were, however, given a monopoly of 
tobacco. Its importation from foreign countries and its 
production in England, Ireland, and the Channel Islands 
were both prohibited. 

In 1660 the English colonies in New England were sep- 
arated from those in Maryland and Virginia by the Dutch 
settlements along the Hudson and the Delaware, 

. The voyage 

or the North and South rivers, as they were then of Henry 
called. The Dutch claims were based on the Hudson, 
voyage of Henry Hudson, an English seaman in 
the service of the Dutch East India Company who, in 1609, 
sailed with a crew of eighteen or twenty men, partly English 
and partly Dutch, in his good ship the Half Moon in search 
of a sea route to India. He took a northern course, but 
encountering ice and storm turned south, and finally entered 
the river which now bears his name. He explored this 
river as far as Albany before abandoning the search for 
a passage through the continent. Later he sailed under the 
English flag in search of a northwest passage and discovered 
and explored Hudson Bay. Here he was set adrift in an 



48 The Colonies 

open boat by a mutinous crew and was never heard of 
more. 

The Dutch East India Company paid Httle attention 
to the discovery of Hudson, but individual merchants be- 
came interested in the fur trade, and the island 
posts^on ^^ Manhattan and the site of Albany soon became 
Manhattan centers of a lively traffic with the Indians. 
Albany Trading posts were established but there appears 

to have been no intention at first of colonizing the 
region. In 1614 Adrian Block sailed through East River, 
which he called "Hellegat" after a river in Holland, and 
explored parts of the New England coast, ascending the 
Connecticut River as far as the site of Hartford. His name 
has clung to Block Island. About the same time Cornelius 
May sailed south and explored the Delaware, giving his 
name to one of the capes at the mouth of the bay. 

In 1621, the Dutch West India Company was chartered 
by the states-general with the double purpose of trade and 
colonization, and in 1623 the first settlers arrived 
underThr ^^ Manhattan. They were distributed at various 
Dutch West points : one party was sent to the Delaware and 
India Com- ^^^-j^ -p^^^ Nassau Opposite the site of Philadel- 
phia ; another party proceeded up the Hudson to 
Fort Orange within the present limits of Albany ; while others 
formed settlements on Long Island and on Staten Island. 

In 1626 Peter Minuit arrived as the first governor or 
director of New Netherland. He secured from the Indians a 
-.j^ title to the Island of Manhattan in exchange for 

" Patroon " goods of the value of about twenty-four dollars 
system ^^^ began the erection of Fort Amsterdam. The 

directors of the West India Company were at this time more 
interested in plundering Spanish galleons than in planting 
colonies, so they left the latter work largely to individual 
enterprise. In order, however, to encourage the settlement 
of New Netherland they issued in 1629 the famous charter 



A Century of Expansion 49 

of "Freedoms and Exemptions," creating a privileged class 
of land-holders known as patroons. Any member of the 
Company who should carry over within four years at his 
own expense fifty settlers over fifteen years of age, was prom- 
ised a tract of land with a frontage of sixteen miles on 
one side of the Hudson, or any other navigable river, or eight 
miles on both sides, extending as far back into the country 
as the situation would permit. The patroon was to enjoy 
over such an estate most of the rights and privileges of a 
feudal lord of a manor. 

These terms were favorable to the patroons but offered 
little inducement to the free citizens of the Netherlands who 
were not accustomed to feudal restrictions. Under William 
Kieft, who became governor in 1638, trouble with the 
Indians on the lower Hudson finally led to a disastrous war, 
1641-1645. His successor, the famous Peter Stuyvesant, 
1647-1664, was the ablest of the Dutch governors, and under 
him New Netherland grew and expanded. 

In 1638 a little colony sent out by the Swedish West India 
Company appeared in the Delaware, and built Fort Christina 
near the site of Wilmington. Other Swedes fol- 
lowed and settlements were made on both sides g^e^jjgjj 
of the river. In 1655 Governor Stuyvesant, being settlements 
at peace with the English and his Indian neigh- ^J^^^^^^ 
bors, led an expedition against Fort Christina 
and annexed the Swedish settlements. 

As long as the Dutch held the central position on the 
Atlantic seaboard between the New England and the 
Chesapeake Bay colonies it was almost impossible 
to carry out the navigation acts. Virginia tobacco conque'st of 
found its way to Europe in Dutch ships and New 
through the same agency European goods were j^^^^^^^^*^' 
carried to the American colonies. It was of vital 
importance, therefore, to the new colonial policy to annex 
the Dutch settlements. Stuyvesant found it impossible to 



50 The Colonies 

check the advance of New Englanders along the sound either 
on the mainland or on Long Island, and conflicts were 
continually arising. Although the English were the aggres- 
sors, they were continually complaining to the home govern- 
ment of injuries inflicted by the Dutch. England and 
Holland were also fierce commercial rivals in the West Indies 
and on the coast of Africa. 

King Charles's brother, James, Duke of York, and his 
friends Berkeley and Carteret were interested in various 
commercial enterprises, and they suggested to the king a 
plan for the conquest of New Netherland. The king 
not only sanctioned the scheme, but issued a royal charter 
granting the Dutch territory in America to his brother as 
lord proprietor. As soon as he received his charter the 
Duke of York commissioned Richard Nicolls as lieutenant 
governor, and the latter with a fleet of four vessels appeared 
before New Amsterdam in August, 1664, and demanded the 
surrender of the city. On receipt of the letter Stuyvesant 
flew into a great rage and tore it to pieces without reading it 
to the members of his council, but the latter gathered up the 
fragments and forced him to surrender, without striking 
a blow. The province and city were renamed New York 
after the duke and most of the settlements were given English 
names. In 1685 the Duke of York became King of England 
and his proprietary rights were merged with the crown. 
Thus New York became a royal province. 

The Duke of York gave away part of his province before 
it was conquered. On June 30, 1664, while the expedition of 
New Jersey, Nicolls was on its way to America, he granted the 
1664-1702 region between the Hudson and the Delaware to 
his friends Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. As the 
latter had been at one time governor of the island of Jersey 
the province was named in his honor New Jersey. 

There were at this time a few Dutch settlements at 
Hoboken and other points on the Hudson, and the Dutch and 



A Century of Expansion 



51 



Swedish settlements on the Delaware. After the English 
conquest many New Englanders came into New Jersey, 
settling at Elizabeth, Newark, and other points in the northern 
part of the province. These settlements became known as 
East Jersey, while those along the Delaware became known 
as West Jersey. 

In 1674, two London Quakers, Edward Byllynge and John 
Fen wick, bought out Berkeley's interest for £1000. It was 
agreed that they should 
have West Jersey, while 
Carteret retained East 
Jersey. The next year 
Byllynge failed and his 
interests were conveyed 
to William Penn and two 
other Quakers for the 
benefit of his creditors. 
Penn and his associates 
also acquired Fenwick's 
share. In July, 1676, 
the proprietors of West 
Jersey signed with Car- 
teret a deed establishing 
a new dividing line be- 
tween East and West 
Jersey, running from 
Little Egg Harbor to the Delaware Water Gap. 

In 1682, Penn and eleven associates acquired from the 
heirs of Carteret the province of East Jersey. Thus both 
provinces fell under Quaker control. Several Scotchmen 
were associated in this transaction with Penn and this fact 
resulted in Scotch immigration to the colony. In 1688 the 
Jerseys were temporarily annexed to New York and placed 
under the rule of Andros. The rights of the proprietors had 
become confused as the result of so many transfers and con- 




WiLLiAM Penn, at the age of 22. 



52 The Colonies 

flicting cLaims, and Penn and others had become interested 
in a new colony, so in 1702 they surrendered all their rights 
to the Crown. East and West Jersey were consolidated in 
the royal province of New Jersey. 

When George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, 
visited America in 1672, he found Quaker communities in 
William Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, 
Penn ^iud North Carolina. He had some idea of found- 

ing a Quaker colony, but did not carry it out. This work was 
reserved for William Penn, one of the most famous characters 
in American history. His father. Sir William Penn, was an 
admiral in the British navy and an intimate friend of Charles 
II and the Duke of York. While a student at Oxford the 
young William Penn became interested in the teachings of 
the Quakers, and when he openly joined the Society of 
Friends, his father drove him from his home. He soon be- 
came the most prominent Quaker in England, and his coura- 
geous defense of his position finally excited the admiration 
of his father, who paid his fines and became fully reconciled. 
On his deathbed the admiral commended his son to the 
special care of the Duke of York. 

Penn's connection with New Jersey has already been de- 
scribed. In this enterprise he was hampered by conflicting 
claims and diverse* interests and could not carry 
syivania " out his own ideas. He decided therefore to 
charter, found a new colony where Quakers could enjoy 
complete religious freedom and where he could put 
into operation some of his political theories. He also wished 
to restore his fortunes, and he had a claim of £16,000 against 
the king on account of loans advanced by his father which 
he saw little chance of collecting. In consideration of this 
debt he received from the king a large grant of land west of 
the Delaware and north of Maryland. 

The charter was issued March 14, 1681, and created a 
proprietary province somewhat like Maryland, named by 



A Century of Expansion 53 

the king Pennsylvania in honor of the founder's father. 
The intention seems clearly to have been to convey to Penn 
a tract of land extending from the fortieth to the forty-third 
parallels of latitude and from the Delaware on the east five 
degrees of longitude westward. But ignorance as to the 
location of the fortieth parallel threw the question of the 
southern boundary into confusion. 

What Penn wanted most was an outlet on Delaware Bay. 
The settlements west of the Delaware had never been 
specifically granted to the Duke of York, but since the English 
conquest he had exercised jurisdiction over them. When the 
Pennsylvania charter was drawn the duke had it so worded 
as to reserve New Castle and the land to the north and west 
within a radius of twelve miles. The following year, how- 
ever, he ceded New Castle and the territory along Delaware 
Bay as far as Cape Henlopen to Penn. This territory had 
all been included within the Maryland grant so that there now 
arose a dispute between Penn and Lord Baltimore as to 
both the Pennsylvania and Delaware boundaries which lasted 
for a century. The present boundaries were finally agreed 
on in 1760, and the line was run and marked in 1767 by two 
distinguished English engineers. Mason and Dixon. 

In October, 1682, Penn arrived in America with about one 
hundred colonists. There were already a number of Dutch, 
Swedish, and English settlers in the province, phuadeiphia 
He landed at New Castle, which was formally founded, 
transferred to him by the duke's agent, and then ^ ^ 
proceeded up the river to Upland, an old Swedish settle- 
ment, which he renamed Chester. Selecting a point for a 
"great town" near the confluence of the Schuylkill, he care- 
fully laid off the streets at right angles and named it Phila- 
delphia, the city of "brotherly love." 

As a result of Penn's wise and statesmanlike policy his 
colony prospered from the first and grew very rapidly. 
Quakers from England and Wales and members of other 



54 The Colonies 

persecuted sects came over in large numbers. Penn had 
visited Germany in company with Fox in 1677, and his 
colony soon attracted the attention of the Mennonites and 
Pietists, whose doctrines were not unlike those of the Quakers. 
A party of Germans arrived at Philadelphia in 1683 under the 
leadership of Francis Daniel Pastorius and founded German- 
town. This was the beginning of the German immigration 
to Pennsylvania, which, however, did not attain large pro- 
portions until the next century. Philadelphia had a more 
rapid growth than any other city in colonial times. Four 
years after it was first laid off it had a population of 8000 
and was the third city in America. 

The Pennsylvania charter contained three novel features : 
the laws, which were to be made with the consent of the 
Imperial freemen, were to be submitted to the Privy 
control Council for approval ; obedience to the navigation 

and other acts of Parliament was expressly stipulated ; and 
the proprietor was required to appoint an agent to reside in 
England. 

In 1682 Penn issued a document known as a Frame of 
Government, establishing a provincial council of seventy- 
The" Frame ^^° persons chosen by the freemen and a General 
of Govern- Assembly of two hundred representatives. Ac- 
ment, 1682 gompanying the Frame was a code of "Laws 
agreed upon in England" to be enacted by the Assembly 
with such alterations or amendments as might be deemed 
necessary. These laws gave the fullest guarantees of per- 
sonal liberty then known in America and established religious 
freedom for all who believed in "one Almighty and Eternal 
God," but restricted to believers in Jesus Christ the right 
to hold office and to vote. 

Penn returned to England in 1701, where he found his 
property much involved, and he had to spend some time in 
prison. His mind became unbalanced and continued so 
until his death in 1718. Pennsylvania and Delaware were 



A Century of Expansion 55 

held as proprietary provinces by his children and grand- 
children until the Revolution. 

About the middle of the century there grew up a little 
settlement of Virginians, in part political and religious 
refugees, on the northern shores of Albemarle pj^.^^ settie- 
Soupd along the Chowan River. This settle- mentinthe 
ment was destined to be the nucleus of the ^^° ^^^ 
colony of North Carolina. A little later some New England 
traders attempted a settlement at the mouth of Cape Fear 
River, but soon abandoned it. 

In 1663 the region between the thirty-first and thirty- 
sixth parallels of latitude was granted to eight proprietors : 

the Earl of Clarendon, the Duke of Albemarle, 

The 
Lord Craven, Lord John Berkeley, Lord Ashley, Carolina 

Sir George Carteret, Sir William Berkeley, and charter, 
Sir John Colleton. This vast grant was erected 
into a palatinate very much like that of Maryland, both 
modeled after the bishopric of Durham. The main differ- 
ence between Maryland and Carolina was that the former 
was granted to one proprietor and the latter to a group of 
eight. This change was unfortunate, for some of the original 
proprietors sold out their interests to other parties who 
introduced discord and confusion into the management of 
the province. 

In 1665 the proprietors received from the king a second 
charter, extending their northern boundary to thirty-six 
thirty so as to include the Albemarle settlement. 

In the autumn of 1665 Sir John Yeamans brought a party 
of colonists from Barbadoes to the Cape Fear River and 
started what was known as the Clarendon 
settlement, but after two years the little colony pyn/a'. 
dispersed. Some of the proprietors appear to mental 
have lost interest in the enterprise, but not so ^ons^'*i66o 
with Lord Ashley. In 1669 his secretary, John 
Locke, afterwards famous as a philosopher, drew up 



56 The Colonies 

at his suggestion "The Fundamental Constitutions," 
elaborating an organic law, semifeudal in character, which 
was about as ill adapted to conditions in the American 
wilderness as anything that the mind of man could 
conceive. 

From the first the proprietors seem to have relied on 
getting settlers from the Bermudas and Barbadoes, where 
Founding of dissatisfaction prevailed, so in 1670 arrangements 
Charleston, were made for Yeamans to lead another expedi- 
tion. After the wreckage of two of his vessels 
he abandoned the enterprise, handing over the command 
to William Sayle, a Bermudian planter, who succeeded in 
founding a settlement on the south side of the Ashley River. 
Later some of the settlers moved across to the tongue of 
land between the Ashley and Cooper rivers and here in 1680 
the town of Charleston was founded. The same year a 
party of Huguenots arrived and a little later some Scotch, 
The growth of Charleston was very rapid. In 1685 the 
population was estimated at 2500, and Charleston was soon 
the most important town south of Philadelphia. 

There was a marked difference from the first between 
the northern and southern settlements and very little 
communication between them, so that they 
between gradually became known as North and South 
North and Carolina. The northern colony was composed 
Carolina ^^ Scattered agricultural communities. It was 
the first frontier in American history and devel- 
oped that type of backwoods life which later characterized 
our western frontier. The southern colony was more com- 
pact, most of the settlements being on the coast in the 
neighborhood of Charleston. Charleston was always in 
direct and frequent communication with the West Indies, 
the Bahamas, the Bermudas, and England, and its citizens 
were thus subject to the refining influences of the outside 
world. 



A Century of Expansion 57 

The restoration of Charles II had been anticipated in 
Virginia by the Assembly, which on the death of Matthews 
in 1660 recalled Sir William Berkeley from retire- Virginia 
ment. As soon as Berkeley was officially in- under 
formed of Charles's restoration he proclaimed him " ^^ 
in Virginia and ordered writs to run in his name. Berkeley 
then went to England to consult his sovereign's pleasure. 
On his return to Virginia in 1662 he summoned an Assembly 
which^ like the "Cavalier Parliament" in England, was 
overwhelmingly royalist, and continued to sit without re- 
election for the next fourteen years. The suffrage, which had 
been extended during the Commonwealth period to all freemen, 
was restricted by act of the Assembly in 1670 to freeholders. 

Virginia thus became a practical oligarchy. Berkeley 
selected his own councilors from the wealthier planters, 
prorogued the Assembly from session to session without 
reelection and appointed the sheriffs and county justices, 
the latter composing the county court and having a general 
control of county affairs. Even the vestries, which ruled 
the parishes, were no longer chosen by the people, but had 
become close corporations and filled the vacancies that 
occurred in their numbers. The most serious hardship for 
the common people, however, was the steady decline in the 
price of tobacco, due in large part to the navigation acts 
which gave the English merchant a monopoly of the trade. 

The general dissatisfaction came to a head in 1676, when 
the Indians began attacking the frontier settlements. 
Berkeley was appealed to, but failed to take Bacons 
effective measures for the defense of the colony rebellion 
and numbers of settlers were killed, among them the over- 
seer of Nathaniel Bacon's plantation. Young Bacon, who 
had not been long in the colony, but who was a man of force 
and determination, then raised a body of three hundred 
volunteers and marched against the Indians. Berkeley 
denounced him and his followers as rebels and started out 



58 The Colonies 

with a body of troops to disperse them. The majority of 
Bacon's followers turned back, but about sixty continued 
to follow him, and storming a palisade slew one hundred 
and fifty Indians. 

In the meantime the people of the colony were thoroughly 

aroused and began arming. So serious was the disaffection 

that Berkeley had to hasten back to Jamestown, 

Bacon and where he agreed to dissolve the old Assembly and 

execution of order a new election. To this Assembly Bacon 

leaders i i • 

was elected. When it convened the Governor par- 
doned him, restored him to his place in the council, and prom- 
ised him a commission as commander-in-chief of the militia. 

But no sooner had Bacon started on his second expedition 
than Berkeley again denounced him and raised a force of 
six hundred men to take him. Most of the wealthier planters 
stood by Berkeley, while probalily two thirds of the people, 
— the lower classes and some of the planters, — supported 
Bacon, giving the struggle the character of a popular revolu- 
tion. Bacon now abandoned the Indian campaign, and 
marched against Jamestown which was taken and burned. 
Berkeley fled to Accomac, and Bacon was preparing, to 
follow him when he was stricken with fever and died. 

Most of Bacon's followers soon dispersed, though some of 
them continued the struggle for two months, at the end of 
which period they were compelled to surrender. Thirteen 
of the leaders were summarily hanged, among them William 
Drummond, a Scotchman who had been governor of the 
Albemarle settlement in North Carolina in 1664. When he 
was brought before Berkeley, the old governor, bowing low, 
said: "Mr. Drummond, you are welcome. I am more glad 
to see you than any man in Virginia. Mr. Drummond, 
you shall be hanged in half an hour." When Berkeley went 
to England to explain matters King Charles refused to see 
him, saying: "That old fool has hanged more men in that 
naked country than I have done for the murder of my father," 



A Century of Expansion 59 

The old cavalier retired to his home and died a few months 
later broken-hearted. 

Conditions in Maryland under the Restoration were 
somewhat similar to those in Virginia. In March, 1660, 
the Assembly with the connivance of Josias Maryland 
Fendall, who had been appointed governor by under 
Lord Baltimore in 1657, took things into its own ^^aries ii 
hands, aljolished the council, and practically repudiated 
Lord Baltimore's authority. The rights of the proprietor 
were, however, upheld by Charles II, and Fendall's move- 
ment came to nought. In 1661 Charles Calvert was ap- 
pointed governor by his father and on the latter's death in 
1675 succeeded to his rights as proprietor. He restricted 
the suffrage, reduced the number of representatives in the 
Assembly, conferred most' of the important offices on his 
Roman Catholic relatives, and ruled arbitrarily. News of 
Bacon's rebellion started an uprising, but the leaders were 
arrested and it amounted to nothing. 

In 1675 Massachusetts and all New England became in- 
volved in a struggle with the Indians known as King Philip's 
War, which extended from the Connecticut 
Valley to the settlements in Maine. In August, PhiUp's 
1676, King Philip was taken and slain. Out of a ^*^' ^675- 
military population of five thousand in Massachu- 
setts and Plymouth, one in ten had been killed or captured, 
over forty towns had been fired, and more than a hundred 
thousand pounds spent in military expenses. 

In 1684 Massachusetts was deprived of her charter on 
the ground that she had violated the acts of trade and was 
guilty of other shortcomings. The following 
year James II came to the throne and in May, setts^de-"" 
1686, he appointed Sir Edmund Andros governor- prfved of 
general of New England. Meanwhile a temporary ^Hf^^^^^^' 
government had been organized in Massachusetts, 
which abolished the representative i^ssembly, enforced the 



60 The Colonies 

navigation acts, and in June, 1686, established for the 
first time an Episcopal Church in Boston. 

Andros arrived in Boston December 20, 1686, and his 
administration lasted until April, 1689. Plymouth and 

Rhode Island submitted to his rule but the 
Governor*- Connecticut authorities tried to retain their 
General separate government. In October, 1687, Andros 
i686^i^68q went to Hartford, dissolved the government and 

annexed the colony to the dominion of New Eng- 
land. But the authorities held on to their charter, hiding 
it in a hollow oak. In August, 1688, Andros visited New 
York and took formal possession of the government of that 
province and also of the Jerseys. Thus all of British America 
from Delaware Bay to Nova Scotia was under the rule of one 
governor-general. When Andros returned to Boston he 
left Francis Nicholson as deputy governor in New York. 
Penn's provinces, Pennsylvania and Delaware, were spared. 
The main purpose of the king in consolidating the northern 
colonies was to secure a rigid enforcement of the navigation 
acts and to afford protection against the French. 

The English Revolution of 1688-1689, which placed 
William and Mary on the throne, brought to a head the 

discontent that existed in several of the American 
Revolution colouies. When the news that the Prince of 
in America, Orange had landed in England and that James 

had fled from the kingdom reached Boston, the 
people rose in open revolt, seized Governor Andros and 
cast him into prison. They then reorganized their govern- 
ment under the old charter. Connecticut and Rhode Island 
likewise reorganized under their former charters, and their 
action was later approved. But Massachusetts had been in- 
subordinate under the old charter, so in the new charter, 
granted in 1691, an important change was made. Hence- 
forth the governor was to be appointed by the Crown 
instead of being elected by the people. 




TTPES OF 

COLOMAL GOVERNMENTS 

1C82 



Proprietary/ Got'emmentS. 
Royal Qovemment9. 




TVPES OK 

COLONIAL GOVEKNMENTS 

1 730-1 7G3 



Proprietary Governments. 
Royal Governments. 



A Century of Expansion 61 

At the same time Plymouth, which was a small and 
relatively weak colony and had never had a charter, was 
annexed to Massachusetts. Maine was likewise formally 
added to her powerful neighbor who had held her without 
authorization for nearly half a century. 

Revolutions also took place in Maryland and in New 
York. In the former province John Coode took advantage 
of the governor's delay in proclaiming the acces- 

,. TTr-iT , ^,r • 1 T^ i Revolutions 

sion 01 William and Mary, to stir up the rrot- in Maryland 
estants and seize the government in the name and in New 
of the new sovereigns. For the next twenty-five 
years the province was under a royal governor. Lord 
Baltimore was never formally deprived of his rights, and 
when a Protestant succeeded to the title in 1715, the pro- 
prietary rights were restored and the Baltimore heirs con- 
tinued to govern the colony until the American Revolution. 

In New York, Governor Nicholson was slow in acknowledg- 
ing William and Mary, and Jacob Leisler headed a revolt and 
seized the fort. His self-constituted rule was unnecessarily 
harsh and severe, and when a new royal governor, Henry 
Sloughter, arrived in 1691, Leisler was, without real justifica- 
tion, tried and hanged for treason. 

The eighteenth century was a period of rapid growth and 
expansion. In 1700 the total population of the colonies 
was about 275,000. By 1750 it had risen to Qj-owth of 
1,200,000 and at the beginning of the Revolution population, 
in 1775 it was about 2,600,000. Throughout the ^700-1750 
colonial period Virginia had the largest population, number- 
ing in 1750, 275,000. Massachusetts came next with 
180,000 ; Pennsylvania third with 150,000 ; Maryland fourth 
with 137,000; and Connecticut fifth with 100,000. New 
York and North Carolina each had about 80,000. The 
relative rank in population was about the same at the begin- 
ning of the Revolution, except that North Carolina had risen 
to the fourth place. Of the cities Boston was the largest 



62 The Colonies 

throughout the seventeenth century and continued to hold 
first place until the middle of the eighteenth century, when 
Philadelphia outstripped her. In 1760 Philadelphia had a 
population of 18,700, Boston of 15,600, New York of 14,000 
and Charleston of 8000. 

Beyond the natural increase of population there was 
during the eighteenth century a large immigration from 
The German Scotland, Ireland, England, and the continent of 
immigration Europe. Germans were among the first settlers 
of Pennsylvania, but the German immigration to that 
colony did not assume very large proportions until the eight- 
eenth century, when, as the result of religious persecutions, 
German Protestants were encouraged by Great Britain 
to seek refuge in her colonies. Among the German 
and Swiss immigrants were representatives of various 
sects : Lutherans, German Reformed, Mennonites, Dunkards, 
and Moravians. A German newspaper was founded at 
Germantown in 1739 and another at Philadelphia in 
1743. 

The last and most important addition to the population 
of the colonies was the immigration of the Scotch-Irish 
The Scotch- Presbyterians which began about the close of the 
Irish flj-st quarter of the eighteenth century. They 

came first to Pennsylvania and finding the eastern part of 
the province already occupied, pushed rapidly to the West, 
and in time filled the Alleghany region. From western 
Pennsylvania they soon found their way into the valley 
of Virginia where they were followed by many German 
families. From the valley of Virginia the Scotch-Irish 
spread southward into North Carolina, Tennessee, and 
South Carolina, and in the period immediately preceding 
the Revolution, into Kentucky. 

While the first stream of Scotch-Irish immigration came 
through Pennsylvania and the valley of Virginia, many of 
the later immigrants landed in eastern Vii^ginia and in 



A Century of Expansion 63 

Charleston, and pushed their way westward. It is claimed 
by some authorities that as many as 500,000 Scotch-Irish 
had come to America by the beginning of the Revolution. 
Finding the Tidewater and Piedmont sections of the South 
already occupied, most of the Scotch-Irish were forced to 
seek lands in the mountainous regions of the West. They 
were a brave, sturdy, frugal, and energetic race, well 
suited to the hardships and dangers of frontier life. 
They not only played a most important part in the later 
French and Indian wars and in the Revolution, but in the 
gradual conquest of the continent by the forces of civiliza- 
tion the Scotch-Irish have always been found on the frontier. 
In fact, the history of the American frontier is largely the 
history of the Scotch-Irish in America. 

The "plan for founding a colony in Georgia originated with 
James Oglethorpe, an English gentleman of good family 
who had served in the continental wars and later 
entered the House of Commons. Early in his ingof 
parliamentary career he became interested in re- Georgia, 
forming the harsh laws against debtors and the 
idea of colonizing the poorer class of debtors in America 
occurred to him. 

The philanthropic feature of the scheme was only one side 
of it. Oglethorpe proposed to found a military colony on the 
southern frontier of South Carolina as a protection against 
the Indians and against the Spanish. He enlisted the sym- 
pathy of many prominent noblemen and clergymen, and in 
June, 1732, they received from the king a charter incorporat- 
ing them as "the trustees for establishing the colony of 
Georgia in America." They were granted a strip of territory 
lying between the Savannah and the Altamaha and extending 
from their headwaters westward to the South Sea. The 
government was to be proprietary in form for a period of 
twenty-one years, after which Georgia was to become a 
royal province. 



64 The Colonies 

In the plans of the trustees there were two novel fea- 
tures : slavery was prohibited and the importation of rum 
was forbidden. In 1738 over a hundred free- 
ofOgie- holders signed a petition to the trustees urging 
thorpe's that these prohibitions be removed. Even White- 
field, the celebrated missionary, who had founded 
an orphan school in Georgia, believed that the progress of 
the colony had been greatly delayed by the lack of negro 
slaves. In 1749 the prohibition against negro slavery was 
removed and the following year the act prohibiting the im- 
portation of rum was repealed. After the removal of these 
restrictions, planters from South Carolina moved into Georgia 
with their slaves and within two years nearly a thousand 
slaves had been brought into the colony. In spite, therefore, 
of the efforts of the trustees to found a colony of small 
freeholders, the plantation system with its characteristic 
features soon developed. 

The southern colonies were devoted largely to agricultural 
pursuits and the most characteristic feature of southern 
Thepianta- economic life was the plantation system which 
tion system ^^s well established in Virginia by the middle 
of the seventeenth century. Large plantations were also 
the rule in Maryland and South Carolina. In North Caro- 
lina, where there was from the first greater diversity of 
industry, the land was more evenly distributed and there 
was not the same tendency to large estates. 

In Virginia and Maryland the plantation system was 
closely connected with the cultivation of tobacco, which early 
became the staple crop. Tobacco culture is very exhausting 
to the soil and under the system of cultivation in vogue in 
the colonial period required the constant clearing of new land 
and the abandonment of old. The scientific care and 
improvement of soils were then unknown and even if they 
had been known, the expansive system of cultivation would 
have been cheaper where there was an abundance of land. 



A Century of Expansion 65 

No new country ever has enough cheap labor and this is 
especially true of new agricultural communities where land 
is cheap and plentiful. The demand for cheap 
labor in Virginia, as in most of the colonies, was 
first met by the development of the system of white servitude, 
which made its appearance early and grew rapidly. 
Throughout the seventeenth century it was the main 
source of labor in the southern colonies. In 1683 there 
were nearly 12,000 white servants in Virginia and only 3000 
slaves. 

The Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 gave England a monopoly of 
the slave trade with the Spanish colonies and the surplus 
slaves were dumped on the British colonies. Under this 
policy slavery grew by leaps and bounds until, by the middle 
of the eighteenth century, the number of slaves in Virginia 
was rapidly approaching that of the entire white population, 
120,000 blacks to 173,000 whites. 'In South Carolina the 
blacks outnumbered the whites. In 1750 negro slavery was 
recognized by law in every North American colony and the 
total slave population was about 300,000. The slave 
population of New England was too small, except in Rhode 
Island, to be of any special econoniic or social significance. 
In the middle colonies the largest number of slaves was to 
be found in New York, where they formed between one sixth 
and one seventh of the population. 

The distribution of the slave population was determined 
almost entirely by economic conditions. While the evils of 
slavery were recognized the only outspoken opposition to the 
system came from the Quakers of Pennsylvania. Many of 
the most prominent and respected merchants of Boston 
and Newport were engaged in the slave traffic. Great excite- 
ment arose in New York in 1712 and again in 1741 over the 
alleged discovery of "negro plots" and on the latter occasion 
fourteen slaves were burned at the stake and eighteen were 
hanged. 



66 The Colonies 

In the North there were few large estates to be found 
except along the Hudson, but even these failed to develop 
a real plantation system. In the northern colonies 
ment of in- there was from the first a much greater variety of 
dustryin industries. The middle colonies produced beef, 
land and the pork, grain, and other food products. In New 
middle England the main industries were shipbuilding, 

fisheries, and the manufacture of rum. All the 
colonies depended largely upon England for their clothing 
and other manufactured goods. There was, however, 
sufficient progress made in manufactures to arouse the 
jealousy of English merchants. As early as 1698 Parlia- 
ment undertook to check the woolen industry in New Eng- 
land, and later restrictions were placed on the hat industry 
and on the manufacture of iron. 

In the commerce of the colonies the Indian fur trade 
played an important part from the first, and the intense 
Trade with rivalry between the several colonies and between 
the West the English and the French frequently led to 
Indies serious Indian troubles. The Indian trade was 

always difficult to regulate. In commerce by sea New Eng- 
land always held the lead. Her fisheries which were early 
developed formed the basis of her trade with foreign coun- 
tries. 

The most important trade carried on by New England, 
however, was with the West Indies. In addition to fish, 
lumber, and horses, provisions and a few British manu- 
factures were exported. In return the New Englanders 
brought back sugar and other West Indian products and 
large quantities of molasses for the New England distilleries. 
New England rum was consumed all through the colonies 
and a large amount was shipped to the coast of Guinea, 
where it was exchanged for negro slaves who were sold in 
the West Indies and in the American colonies. Massachu- 
setts and Rhode Island were largely engaged in this trade. 



A Century of Expansion 67 

In 1721 the Board of Trade called attention to the fact 
that the New Englanders were buying a large part of their 
sugar and molasses from the French and Dutch colonies, 
and in 1731, the British merchants and sugar planters peti- 
tioned Parliament for relief. This led to the celebrated 
Molasses Act of 1733, which placed prohibitory duties on 
foreign sugar, molasses, and rum imported into the English 
colonies. This act encountered great opposition in the 
northern colonies and it was persistently violated. 

Piracy was very common in the early years of the eight- . 
eenth century, especially in the West Indies, but there were 
several notorious characters who infested the 

Pirflcv 

shores of America. Among them the best 
known were Captain William Kidd, Teach or Thatch, com- 
monly known as Black Beard, and Steve Bonnet. Kidd was 
sent out by Lord Bellomont, governor of New York, to cap- 
ture pirates, but ended by turning pirate himself. He was 
finally seized, sent to England for trial, and executed. In 
1718 Governor Spotswood of Virginia sent an expedition in 
search of Black Beard which engaged in a pitched battle 
with him on the coast of North Carolina. Black Beard 
and several of his accomplices were killed. In the same 
year Bonnet and several of his followers were captured by 
an expedition sent out by the governor of South Carolina, 
were tried and executed. A little later another battle 
took place off Charleston in which several pirates were 
captured and afterwards convicted and put to death. 

Domestic commerce was seriously hampered by the lack 
of a colonial currency. There was almost no English money 
in the colonies, and the Spanish silver which came jheiackof 
in through the New England trade with the West a colonial 
Indies was limited in amount and rated differently ^^"^^^^ 
in the different colonies. In Virginia tobacco was the regu- 
lar currency, even salaries of colonial officials being fixed 
by statute in so many thousand pounds of tobacco. Ware- 



68 The Colonies 

house receipts formed a convenient circulating medium. 
The Virginia planter bought all his supplies through the 
London merchant to whom he shipped his tobacco. The 
merchant credited him on his books with the amount realized 
from the crop, and the planter drew on this credit as on a 
bank account. In many of the colonies the system of 
primitive barter still continued. Massachusetts was the 
first colony to issue paper money. This was done to meet 
the expenses of the expedition against Quebec in 1690. 

The English Church was established in Virginia from the 
first and that colony continued to be its main stronghold 
The during the eighteenth century. It was not 

Anglican definitely established by law in any of the other 

"^*^ colonies until the Revolution of 1688. Virginia 

had always been under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of 
London and his authority over the other colonies had been 
recognized in a general way. The Bishop of London was a 
member of the Board of Trade, though he did not attend its 
sessions unless notified that some ecclesiastical matter was 
to come up. 

The Anglican Church occupied a peculiar status in America. 
No bishop ever set foot in the colonies prior to the American 
Revolution, and an Episcopal Church without a bishop is 
something of an anomaly. This defect was partially reme- 
died by the appointment of representatives of the bishop 
known as commissaries, but a commissary was granted only 
a small share of episcopal authority. The first American 
commissary was James Blair, who was sent to Virginia 
shortly after the Revolution of 1689. Blair greatly 
strengthened the Church by disciplining the clergy and by 
bringing over new ministers to fill the vacant parishes. 
His greatest work was the founding of William and Mary 
College in 1693. 

In the New England colonies the Anglican Church had 
to struggle for its existence. Except in Rhode Island the 



A Century of Expansion 69 

Congregational churches were supported by pubUc taxation. 
In Massachusetts the Church of England had been tolerated 
since 1660 only at the express command of xhe Church 
the king, and the first church was established in New 
in Boston in 1686. The rigid Puritanism of the ^'^^^^'^^ 
early days, however, was being somewhat relaxed and the 
Congregational Church suffered from division into a conserv- 
ative and a progressive faction. Under these conditions 
Quakers, Baptists, and Episcopalians began to make head- 
way and demanded exemption from taxes levied for the 
support of the Congregational Church. By 1730 they had 
been partially relieved of this burden in both Massachusetts 
and Connecticut. The complete separation of Church and 
State in these colonies did not take place, however, until 
long after the American Revolution. 

Many of the colonial governors were men of scholarly 
tastes, and urged the needs of education upon the attention 
of the colonial assemblies. The Anglican Church 
also exerted its influence in favor of education. 
Blair in Virginia and Bray in Maryland were both very active 
in this cause, and Dean Berkeley, afterwards famous as 
bishop and philosopher, came to America for the purpose 
of founding a college and lived for three years at Newport, 
Rhode Island. He was di.sappointed in his plans and 
returned to England, but he made gifts of books to both 
Harvard and Yale. 

Harvard College was founded in 1638. There was no 
other college founded in America until 1693 when Blair 
secured a royal charter for the College of William ^j^^ found- 
and Mary. Blair was its first president and held ing of 
the office for fifty years. Williamsburg where '^^ ^^^^ 
it was located also became the capital of the colony and a 
center of social and political influence. The need of a col- 
lege in Virginia had been less felt than in New England, as 
the more frequent intercourse with the mother country 



70 The Colonies 

rendered it easy for the sons of wealthy planters to go to the 
English universities for their education. This had been 
quite common in the seventeenth century and continued 
to some extent after the founding of WilKam and Mary Col- 
lege. 

Yale College in Connecticut was founded in 1701, like 
Harvard and William and Mary, under ecclesiastical in- 
fluences. Its chief promoters were Harvard graduates who 
felt that the older college was drifting away from orthodox 
standards. Yale became a stronghold of Calvinism and 
two of its graduates, Jonathan Dickinson and Jonathan 
Edwards, became the first two presidents of the College of 
New Jersey, which was chartered in 1746. About ten years 
later King's College, now Columbia University, was founded 
under Anglican auspices, and the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, through the influence of Benjamin Franklin. The 
latter was of all colonial colleges the freest from ecclesiastical 
control. 

In the founding of these colleges donations of books are 
frequently mentioned, so that the importance of libraries 
was recognized. In 1698 the South Carolina 
Assembly made an appropriation for a library in 
Charleston which was the first public library in America. In 
1731 Benjamin Franklin founded a public subscription library 
in Philadelphia. The most valuable and best selected pri- 
vate collection of books in America prior to the Revolution 
was the library of William Byrd of Westover, which contained 
four thousand volumes. 

The first colonial newspaper was the Boston News Letter 
founded in 1704. During the next twenty years newspapers 
were established in Rhode Island, New York, 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and South 
Carolina. Most of these were weeklies. As the facilities for 
gathering American news were poor, these papers were unfor- 
tunately defective on that side. They devoted a large part 



A Century of Expansion 71 

of their space to English politics and court life and to essays 
on literary subjects. In 1735 Boston had five newspapers. 

TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. Colonial Policy of the Restoration: C. M. Andrews, Colonial 
Self-Governmenl, Chaps. I, II ; Channing, History of the United 
States, Vol. II, pp. 1-13. 

2. The Dutch Settlements: Channing, Vol. I, Chaps. XVI, 
XVII; Fiske, Dutch and Quaker Colonies, Vol. I, Chaps. IV-IX ; 
Andrews, Chap. V. 

3. William Penn and the Founding of Pennsylvania : Channing, 
Vol. II, Chaps. IV, XI; Fiske, Vol. II, Chap. XII; Andrews, 
Chaps. XI, XII. 

4. The Beginnings of the Carolinas : Channing, Vol. II, pp. 13- 
25, and Chap. XII; Andrews, Chaps. IX, X; Fiske, Old Virginia, 
Vol. II, Chap. XV; Edw. MeCrady, History of South Carolina 
under the Proprietary Government. 

5. Bacon's Rebellion: Channing, Vol. II, pp. 80-91 ; Andrews, 
Chap. XIV; Fiske, Old Virginia, Vol. II, Chap. XI. 

6. End of Stuart Rule in America : Channing, Vol. II, Chap. VI ; 
Andrews, Chaps. XV, XVI ; Fiske, Beginnings of New England, 
Chap. VI. 

7. Growth of Population: Channing, Vol. II, Chap. XIV; 
Fiske, Old Virginia, Vol. II, Chap. XVII ; Greene, Provincial 
America, Chap. XIV; H. J. Ford, The Scotch-Irish in America. 

8. The Plantation System, Servitude, and Slavery : Channing, 
Vol. II, Chap. XIII; Fiske, Old Virginia, Vol. 11, pp. 181-203, 
220-235, 327-333 ; P. A. Bruce, Economic History of Virginia in 
the Seventeenth Century, Vol. I, Chap. IX and Vol. II, Chaps. X, 
XI, XII, XXI. 

9. Commerce and Piracy : Greene, Chap. XVII ; Fiske, Old 
Virginia, Vol. II, Chap. XVI; Channing, Vol. II, pp. 507-521; 
W. B. Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England,. 
Chap. IX. 

10. Religion and Education: Channing, Vol. II, Chaps. XV, 
XVI; Greene, (^haps. VI, XVIII; Bruce, Institutional History of 
Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, Vol. I, Parts I and II. 



CHAPTER TV 

THE RISE AND FALL OF NEW FRANCE, 1608- 1763 

Within a few years of Cabot's voyage to North America 
English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish fishermen began 
The French ^'^ I'Gsort annually to the shores of Newfoundland, 
in Nova and built up an extensive fishing industry. In 
cotia, I 05 ^^^^ Roberval and Cartier undertook to form a 
settlement at Quebec, but the post was soon abandoned. 
The first permanent French colony was established by the 
Sieur de Monts at Port Royal, Nova Scotia, in 1605. Acadia, 
as this region was called by the French, became the scene 
of early conflicts between the English and the French. 

The real founder of New France was Samuel de Champlain, 

who in 1608 selected Quebec as the best place for a permanent 

stronghold and formed a settlement there. He 

and'tlfi^'" had been associated with De Monts at Port Royal, 

founding of and was now made governor of New France, a 

1608 ^*^' position which he continued to hold when the new 

company of the Hundred Associates was or- 
ganized. Champlain was a great explorer. He led in per- 
son parties up the Saguenay, the Ottawa, along the shores 
of Lake Huron and the region around Lake Champlain. In 

1609 he committed a most unfortunate indiscretion in ac- 
companying a body of Algonquins in an attack on the Iro- 
quois. They met a body of two hundred and fifty warriors 
on the shores of Lake Champlain near the point where Fort 
Ticonderoga was afterwards built, and, with the aid of fire- 
arms, won an easy victory. Later on he invaded the Iro- 
quois territory with a body of Hurons. These expeditions 
profoundly affected the whole future history of New France, 

72 




'iLaSalle's Route from Ft.St.'Louis 

\Ni^^P^ «o the Gulf, (tess) 

Hennepin's Route, (icso) 



The Rise and Fall of New France 73 

for the Iroquois occupied a strategic position in the Mo- 
hawk Valley, and the hostilit}^ of the French drove them 
into friendly relations first with the Dutch and later with 
the English in New York. • 

The St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers and the Great Lakes 
afforded easy access to the interior of the continent, and, in 
spite of the efforts of Champlain and the later pur traders 
governors to develop agricultural communities and mis- 
around Quebec and Montreal, they found it im- ^^°°^"^^ 
possible to prevent the settlers from spreading over the en- 
tire lake region and engaging in the fur trade on their own 
account. There grew up a class of woodrangers, or coureurs 
de hois, who became the boon companions of the Indians, 
adopted their modes of life and methods of hunting, and 
intermarried with them. They interfered seriously with 
the monopoly of the fur trade which the Company reserved 
for itself, and edict after edict was issued against them, but 
to no purpose. 

The Jesuit missionaries followed close on the heels of the 
coureurs de bois, and from the Indians they first learned of 
the great river to the west. The Jesuits displayed in America 
their usual zeal and activity, and the history of their wide- 
spread labors among the Indians is a fascinating and unsur- 
passed record of self-sacrifice and devotion.- 

Owing to the hostility of the Iroquois, the early explorers 
and traders followed the line of the Ottawa River instead of 
Lakes Ontario and Erie. From the Ottawa River 
they crossed by a short portage to Lake Nipissing, Mississippi 
thence down French River to Georgian Bay, and discovered, 
westward into Lakes Superior and Michigan. 
Lake Erie was the last one to be explored. It was by way 
of Lake Michigan and Green Bay that the Mississippi was 
first reached. In ,1673 Father Jacques Marquette, accom- 
panied by Louis Joliet, went from Green Bay up the Fox 
River, thence by an easy portage to the Wisconsin, and 



74 



The Colonies 



La Salle 
explores the 
Mississippi 



thence down the Wisconsin to the Mississippi. When they 
started out they firmly beheved from information derived 
from the Indians that the Mississippi entered the South 
Sea or Pacific Oceaa, They proceeded down the river as 
far as the mouth of the Arkansas, where they became satis- 
fied from inquiry among the Indians that it emptied into the 
Gulf of Mexico. They then retraced their course and Joliet 
hurried back to Quebec 
with news of the discovery. 
Count Frontenac, the 
governor, was quick to 

recognize the 

importance of 

this discoveiy, 
to its mouth, and his young 

protege, Rob- 
ert Cavelier, Sieur de la 
Salle, who had come to 
Canada a few years be- 
fore, was eager to extend 
the influence of France 
into the valley of the 
Mississippi. After sev- 
eral years of preparation 
and a visit to France for the purpose of securing from Louis 
XIV a patent authorizing him to establish forts and to en- 
gage in the fur trade, La Salle finally entered the Mississippi 
River, by way of the Illinois, in February, 1682, and two 
months later reached its mouth. 

Returning to France by way of Canada, he received a 
commission as governor of the country between Lake Mich- 
Appointed ^^an and the Gulf of Mexico, which he had named 
governor of Louisiana in honor of the king, and in July, 1684, 
Louisiana ^^-j^^ ^^^^ Rochelle with four ships and four 

hundred men to take possession. The expedition was 




La Salle. 



The Rise and Fall of New France 75 

unable to find the mouth of the Mississippi and was forced 
to land on the coast of Texas. Some of the party returned 
to France and finally in January, 1687, after the one re- 
maining ship was wrecked. La Salle set out for Canada 
with a few followers on horses secured from the Indians. 
Two months later on the banks of the Trinity River in 
Texas he was assassinated by one of his companions. La 
Salle was an explorer of great energy, ability, and resource- 
fulness, but as a leader he was haughty and harsh towards 
his inferiors, and made bitter enemies. Notwithstanding 
his failure to settle the country. La Salle is justly remem- 
bered as the founder of Louisiana. 

Ten years after his death his work was taken up by the 
two sons of Charles le Moyne of Quebec, Pierre, the elder, 

known from his seigniory as Iberville, and Jean 

. . The settle- 

Baptiste, the younger, known as Bienville. They ment of 

sailed from Brest in Octol^er, 1698, with two hun- Louisiana, 

dre^l soldiers and colonists, and landed on Biloxi 

Bay, where they built Fort Maurepas in February, 1699. 

In 1702 the colony was moved to Mobile Bay, and in 1710 

the town of Mobile was founded by Bienville. He also 

founded New Orleans in 1718 and made it the capital of the 

province. Bienville served as governor during most of the 

time until his death in 1743. 

Meanwhile the accession of William and Mary to the 

English throne had brought on a war between England and 

France. Since the Revocation of the Edict of 

Nantes Louis XIV had been regarded as the England's 

great enemy of Protestantism, and William, foffign 

who for years had headed the European alliance 

against Louis, was regarded as its champion. The English 

people were strongly Protestant in their sympathies, but 

their Protestantism had had little influence on the foreign 

policy of the country during the reigns of Charles II and 

James II, both of whom were Catholics. In fact, English 



76 The Colonies 

diplomacy had Keen wavering and inconsistent. In the 
secret treaty of Dover in 1670 Charles had committed Eng- 
land to the support of Louis's schemes, and England had 
cooperated with France against the Dutch in 1672. Wil- 
ham's accession to the throne brought about a radical change 
of foreign policy. 

War was declared in Europe in April, 1689, but it was 
several months before hostilities began in the colonies. 
Count Count Frontenac, who was now sent out as gov- 

Frontenac ernor of New France for the second time, was a 
soldier of wide experience and great ability and by far the 
ablest of all the French governors of Canada. There was 
no leader on the English side who could be compared with 
him. In addition to this the government of Canada was 
strongly centralized. There were practically no restrictions 
on the governor and he had all of his resources well in hand. 
The decentralization of the English colonies, on the other 
hand, was a great disadvantage to them from a milit^iry 
point of view. 

The principal incidents of the war in America were the 
capture of Schenectady by Count Frontenac in February, 
1690, the futile attempt of Governor Phips of 
William's Massachusetts to take Quebec with a New 
War, 1690- England fleet later in the year, and Frontenac's 
'^^^ raids into the Mohawk Valley in 1693 and 1696. 

The war in America was on the whole indecisive, though 
during the closing months the French had somewhat the 
advantage, and their influence over the Indians had been 
strengthened. The war was brought to a close in 1697 by 
the Treaty of Ryswick, which was a truce rather than a 
treaty of peace as far as the general questions at stake were 
concerned. In America each party received back the pos- 
sessions which it had held at the beginning of the struggle. 

In the great War of the Spanish Succession, which began 
in 1702, England was again opposed to France, and hostilities 



The Rise and Fall of New France 77 

soon broke out in America. The first years of the war were 
marked by French and Indian raids on the frontier towns 
of New England, In 1704 occurred the most ^^ 

^ _ _ Queen 

harrowing episode of the war, the night attack Anne's War, 
on Deerfield, in which men, women, and children ^702-1713 
were murdered and a hundred prisoners carried off to Canada, 
many of them never to return. Several expeditions against 
Canada were planned, but the only one that was success- 
fully carried out was that against Acadia. In 1710 Nichol- 
son, with the aid of New England militia and some British 
war ships, captured Port Royal. The name was changed 
to Annapolis in honor of the queen, and Acadia became the 
royal province of Nova Scotia. 

The position of England was greatly strengthened by the 
Peace of Utrecht, signed in 1713. In the Mediterranean 
she acquired Gibraltar and IMinorca ; in the pga^e of 
West Indies, St. Christopher; and in America, Utrecht, 
Nova Scotia, together with the recognition of her ^"^^^ 
claim to the Hudson Bay region and Newfoundland. France 
also agreed to recognize the Iroquois as subjects of the 
king of England. 

Another arrangement of the Treaty of Utrecht was des- 
tined to exercise a profound influence upon the English 
colonies in America. England secured from xheasiento 
Spain the asiento, or contract, for supplying the of 1713 gives 
Spanish colonies with African slaves. Under the ^ono^oj \f 
terms of this lucrative monopoly England became the slave 
the great slave-trading power of the world, and ^^^^^ 
the surplus slaves not taken by the Spanish colonies were 
forced upon the English colonies of North America. After 
this date slavery increased very rapidly in the English 
colonies, and act after act was passed by colonial assemblies, 
especially that of Virginia, restricting or prohibiting the 
importation of slaves, but they were all disallowed by the 
home government. The vetoing of these bills was one of 



78 The Colonies 

the indictments against England placed by Jefferson in the 
original draft of the Declaration of Independence, but stricken 
out by the committee in the revision. 

The asiento proved the entering wedge for an extensive 
smuggling trade on the part of English freebooters. Spain's 

colonial policy had been formulated in the in- 
deciares war terests of her own merchants and manufacturers, 
on Spain, ^nd her colonies were absolutely forbidden to 

trade with any other country. As a result of 
these narrow restrictions her West Indian and South Amer- 
ican colonists secretly encouraged English smuggling, and 
the illicit trade grew to enormous proportions. In order to 
break up this commerce which was seriously interfering 
with her own trade, the Spanish government resorted to very 
high-handed proceedings, stopping and searching English 
ships on the high seas, and frequently resorting to inex- 
cusable outrages. Thus the two countries gradually drifted 
into a state of war which was formally declared October 19, 
1739. Admiral Vernon was dispatched with a strong 
squadron to the West Indies. In November, 1740, he cap- 
tured and destroyed Porto Bello on the Isthmus of Panama, 
but was repulsed before Cartagena, Colombia, a few months 
later. 

The war between England and Spain was soon over- 
shadowed by the larger European struggle known as the 

War of the Austrian Succession. News of the 
George's declaration of war between England and France 
War, 1744- in 1744 reached Louisburg two months before it 

was received in Boston, and the British outposts 
in Nova Scotia were attacked without warning. When 
news of these attacks reached Boston, Governor Shirley of 
Massachusetts at once began making plans for the capture 
of Louisburg. To this expedition Massachusetts contrib- 
uted 3300 men, Connecticut 516, and New Hampshire 454. 
In March, 1745, the expedition left Boston under com- 



The Rise and Fall of New France 79 

mand of William Pepperell, a wealthy merchant, and with 
the aid of a British fleet captured Louisburg after a siege of 
six weeks. The news was received at Boston with un- 
bounded enthusiasm and created great rejoicing throughout 
the other colonies and also in England. Plans were at once 
outlined for an attack on Quebec and Montreal, and if the 
British government had shown the energy that it did later 
under Pitt, the conquest of Canada might have been ef- 
fected at this time. The government failed to send the 
promised support and the preparations were diverted by the 
appearance of a French fleet in American waters. 

Meanwhile a savage border warfare was in progress along 
the New England and the New York frontier,- in the course 
of which the Indians led by French officers com- 
mitted the usual atrocities. It is unnecessary johnson 
to enter into the details of these raids. In the ^"^ *^f 
arts of Indian diplomacy the French were usually 
superior to the English and they had long been tampering 
with the Iroquois. But their endeavors in this direction 
were thwarted by the skill and shrewdness of a young 
Irishman named William Johnson, who had acquired a large 
estate in the Mohawk Valley, and whose remarkable in- 
fluence over the Iroquois stood the English in good stead 
until the final conquest of Canada. 

The war in Europe and America was brought to a close 
by the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, July, 1748. So far as 
general results were concerned the contest was 
a drawn battle. All conquests were restored. ofAix-ia- 
This was a severe blow to the New Englanders ChapeUe, 
who had shed their blood in taking Louisburg, 
and indignation against the home government was openly 
expressed. It was felt that American interests had been 
sacrificed to the general interests of the British empire. 

In view of the vast territory covered by the French in 
America it is always surprising to recall the fact that the 



80 The Colonies 

population at the middle of the eighteenth century was 
only about 80,000. The English settlements, on the other 
The govern- ^^^^^y confined largely to the seaboard strip east 
mentofNew of the Alleghanies, had d population of at least 
^^^'^^ a million and a quarter. New France was di- 

vided into two provinces, Canada and Louisiana. The gov- 
ernment of each was highly centralized and modeled after 
that of a French province. 

In Canada everything was centralized at Quebec and 
all authority was vested in three autocrats : the governor, 
the intendant, and the bishop. The governor had charge 
of both civil and military affairs ; the intendant had a 
general supervision over financial matters and the adminis- 
tration of justice, presided over the council and acted as a 
check upon the governor by making confidential reports 
directly to the king ; the bishop looked after the interests 
of the Church, and, through the parish priests, exercised a 
powerful influence over local matters. 

France was now firmly intrenched in the St. Lawrence 
Valley and on the lower Mississippi, and these regions were 
connected by a long line of forts extending from 
Company the Great Lakes to the Ohio and the Mississippi, 
chartered, 'j']-^g fmal struggle for the control of the con- 
tinent began in the center on the headwaters of 
the Ohio River. Fur traders from Virginia and Pennsyl- 
vania had long been familiar with this region when, in 1749, 
the Ohio Company received a charter and a grant of half 
a million acres along the Ohio River. This company was 
regarded as a Virginia enterprise. It numbered among its 
incorporators many prominent Englishmen, as well as 
several Virginians, among the latter being Washington's 
two brothers, Lawrence and Augustine. 

Christopher Gist, a well-known frontiersman, was sent out 
in 1750 to explore the country as far as the falls of the Ohio 
(Louisville), and to select the lands for the Company. The 



The Rise and Fall of New France 81 

Company also constructed a fort at Wills Creek, now Cum- 
berland, Maryland, and, with the aid of Colonel Thomas 
Cresap and the Indian chief Nemacolin, blazed a trail over 
the mountains to a point on the Monongahela, sixty miles 
distant, where they built another fort (1752). This famous 
trail is known in history variously as Nemacolin's Path, Wash- 
ington's Road, Braddock's Road, and the Cumberland Pike. 

The French were stirred by these movements to advance 
their outposts south of Lake Erie and in 1753 they built 
Fort Le Boeuf on French Creek, a tributary of the " The Forks 
Alleghany, and seized the English trading post of the Ohio" 
of Venango, at the mouth of French Creek. With an 
English outpost on the Monongahela and a French outpost 
on the Alleghany it was evident that the junction of these 
rivers, known as the "Forks of the Ohio," would be the 
strategic point in the contest. 

In November, 1753, Governor Dinwiddle of Virginia de- 
termined to send a messenger to Fort Le Boeuf to warn the 
French against occupying a region "so notoriously known 
to be the property of the crown of Great Britain." For this 
mission he selected Major George Washington, who was 
then twenty-one years of age and who held the position of 
adjutant general of the Virginia militia. Guided by Chris- 
topher Gist and a small party of attendants, he successfully 
accomplished the perilous task. The commandant at Fort 
Le Boeuf received him courteously, but replied that he 
would await the orders of the governor of Canada. 

In January, 1754, Captain William Trent, acting in 

behalf of the Company and under instructions from the 

governor of Virginia, began the construction of 

a fort at the forks of the Ohio. The governor driven from 

had intended that Washington should follow *h® ^^°- 

■ 1754 

shortly with a force to support him, but the 

Virginia Assembly delayed making the necessary appropri- 
ations. Aid from New York and North Carolina had been 



82 The Colonies 

promised, but was likewise delayed. Finally on the last 
day of March, Washington set out with three hundred Vir- 
ginians. At Wills Creek he met Trent, who had been 
driven from the Ohio by the French and their Indian allies. 
Without waiting for reinforcements Washington continued 
his advance, but after defeating one body of the enemy, 
he was compelled by a larger force a few days later to take 
refuge behind a hastily constructed palisade at Great 
Meadows, and finally to capitulate. He retired to Wills 
Creek. The French completed the fort at the forks of the 
Ohio, and named it Fort Duquesne. 

In June, 1754, the first colonial congress of any importance 
met at Albany at the suggestion of the British government 
The Albany ^^^ ^^^ purpose of treating with the Iroquois, 
Congress, who were being tampered with by the French, 
^"^^^ and for the further purpose of formulating a plan 

for intercolonial union. There were present representa- 
tives from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, 
Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland ; 
among them were several men of later note, such as Benjamin 
Franklin of Pennsylvania, Thomas Hutchinson of Massa- 
chusetts, Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island, and William 
Johnson of New York. 

The plan of union provided for a president-general ap- 
pointed by the king and a federal council of representatives 
from the several colonies, to have special authority over 
Indian relations, public lands, and military affairs. The 
scheme was rejected by the colonies and failed to receive the 
approval of the British, government. There was no further 
attempt at colonial union until the calling of the Continental 
Congress which adopted the Declaration of Independence. 

In answer to Governor Dinwiddle's appeals, the British 
government finally sent General Edwin Braddock to America 
with two Irish regiments. He arrived at Alexandria in 
March, 1755, and in April a conference with the governors 



The Rise and Fall of New France 83 

of Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and 
Maryland was held at his headquarters. It was decided 
that the campaign should be opened on a large 
scale and the French attacked at four different for the cam- 
points : Braddock was to go against Fort P*'g° °^ 

1 755 

Duquesne ; Shirley and Pepperell were to attack 
the French Fort at Niagara, the key to the lake route; 
William Johnson was to move against Crown Point on 
Lake Champlain ; and Colonel Robert Monckton was to 
reduce Fort Beausejour on the isthmus comnnecting Nova 
Scotia with the mainland. 

Braddock and the other English officers looked with 
contempt upon the colonial mihtia, but he invited Wash- 
ington to accompany him as aid with the rank Braddock's 
of major'. He also took with him a force of 450 defeat, 1755 
Virginia militia, most of them experienced frontiersmen, 
and 50 Indian scouts. The expedition reached Fort Cum- 
berland May 10, 1755 ; here Braddock waited a month for 
his cannon before the march was resumed. The French 
meanwhile had strengthened the garrison of Fort Duquesne 
and sent out a force of 70 regulars, 150 Canadians, and 650 
Indians, under Captain Beaujeu. On July 8, 1755, while 
passing through a wide and bushy ravine, about eight miles 
from Fort Duquesne, Braddock was attacked by Beaujeu. 

Braddock was not ambushed, as has often been stated, for 
he had been aware for some time that the Indians were 
hovering on his flanks. It was a typical frontier fight such 
as the Englishman trained in the methods of European war- 
fare was unable to comprehend. The Virginians, following 
the Indian method of fighting, scattered and sought cover, 
while Braddock insisted on making his men fight in ranks. 
Their regular volleys fired at command did more harm to 
the Virginians than to the Indians. Washington wrote to 
Dinwiddie that "two thirds of both killed and wounded re- 
ceived their shots from our own cowardly dogs of soldiers." 



84 The Colonies 

The fight had lasted for about two hours when Braddock was 
shot through the arm and lungs and the command devolved 
upon Washington. After vainly endeavoring to rally the 
British, he retreated to Christopher Gist's plantation and 
later to Fort Cumberland. Braddock died from his wounds 
on the march. Fortunately the Indians did not pursue 
and the troops reached Fort Cumberland July 17. At news 
of the disaster British traders and settlers fled over the 
mountains, leaving the French in absolute control of the 
trans- Alleghany region. 

Johnson's expedition against Crown Point and Shirley's 
expedition against Niagara were both Hkewise failures. 
The fate of The OYily successful campaign of the year was 
the Acadians that of Monckton against Fort Beausejour, which, 
with a force of a few regulars and two thousand New Eng- 
land volunteers, he captured early in June. The Acadians 
had never become reconciled to British rule. Under the 
influence of their French priests the majority of them had 
refused to take the oath of allegiance to Great Britain, and 
the disaffected element had gathered around Fort Beause- 
jour. They were once more ordered to take the oath, but 
under the influence of their priests they again refused. About 
seven thousand of them, — about half the population of 
the peninsula, — were deprived of their property, placed 
aboard transports and scattered among the English settle- 
ments from Massachusetts to Georgia. After great hard- 
ships and suffering some of them escaped to the French West 
Indies, others made their way to Louisiana, while a few, 
after years of wandering, managed to get back to Acadia. 

Braddock's defeat left the whole western frontier ex- 
posed, and the Indians spurred on by the French were quick 
to take up the hatchet. The frontiersmen of the middle 
and southern colonies now suffered the unspeakable hor- 
rors of Indian raids, murder, pillage, the torch, and stake. 
Washington, now twenty-four years of age, was placed in 



Tlie Rise and Fall of New France 85 

command of the western frontier. With a force varying 
from a thousand to fifteen hundred Virginia riflemen, he 
assumed the dangerous and arduous task of de- 
fending three hundred and fifty miles of frontier, ton'gde-' 
marked by a line of forts at long intervals : Fort fense of the 
Ligonier in Pennsylvania, Fort Cumberland in ^^^^^^^^^ 
Maryland, Fort Chiswcll in Virginia, Fort Byrd on 
Holston, and Fort Loudoun on the Little Tennessee. This 
period of Washington's life is little known and the incidents 
of this fierce and l)loody warfare are all but forgotten, over- 
shadowed as they were by the larger operations against 
Canada. 

Hostilities had been in full progress in America for over 
a year before war between England and France was formally 
declared in May, 1756. Lord Loudoun was now 
appointed commander-in-chief of the British disasters of 

forces in America and about the same time the 1756 and 

• 1757 

Marquis de Montcalm, an able, brave, and en- 
ergetic soldier and a gentleman of culture and refinement, 
took command of the French forces. Before the British were 
ready to take the field Montcalm captured the fort at Oswego 
with its garrison of three thousand men, and then established 
himself at Ticonderoga at the southern end of Lake Cham- 
plain with a force of 5000. The year 1756 closed for the 
English with failure and disaster on all sides. The year 
1757 witnessed the failure of Loudoun's expedition against 
Louisburg, and the capture of Fort William Henry by Mont- 
calm with the subsequent massacre of the prisoners by his 
Indian allies. 

At this crisis William Pitt, the greatest Englishman 
of his age, was recalled to office and appointed Secre- 
tary of State for War and Foreign Affairs in the -^jujam Pitt 
ministry of the Duke of Newcastle. Pitt at once recalled to 
concentrated his energies on the war in America. °^^^' ^^57 
Loudoun was recalled and General James Abercromby was 



86 The Colonies 

appointed to succeed him, while Colonel Geoffrey Amherst 
was sent over with the rank of major general to conduct 
operations against Louisburg. The new officers treated the 
colonials with great consideration, and 20,000 provincials 
were raised for the war. 

Three separate expeditions were organized for the cam- 
paign of 1758 : General John Forbes was to lead 1900 
Military regulars and 5000 provincials against Fort Du- 
preparations quesne ; Abercromby, with a force of 6000 regu- 
°^ ^'^^ lars and 9000 provincials, was ordered to reduce 

Fort Ticonderoga and open the way to Canada ; while Am- 
herst, with brigadier generals Charles Lawrence, Edward 
Whitmore, and James Wolfe, was assigned 14,000 regulars 
for the reduction of Louisburg. 

The expedition against Louisburg was a brilliant success. 
A strong fleet under command of Admiral Edward Bos- 
The fall of cawen cooperated with Amherst. The formal 
Louisburg, siege began June 2 and on the 26th the garrison 
^^^ surrendered after great breaches had been made 

in the walls and most of the batteries silenced. General 
Wolfe, who was the hero of the siege, returned to England 
on sick leave. In 1760 the fortress of Louisburg was 
torn down and Halifax became the stronghold of Nova 
Scotia. 

Abercromby's expedition against Ticonderoga was a 
dismal failure. On July 8 in a great fight before Ticonderoga, 
The failure lasting from nine in the morning until nightfall, 
of Aber- he was repulsed by Montcalm with the loss of 
crom y -j^g^^ killed, wounded, and missing. Abercromby 

withdrew to the head of Lake Champlain where he con- 
tinued during the rest of the summer, but Montcalm was too 
cautious to risk an attack. 

Colonel John Bradstreet, one of Abercromby's officers, 
undertook a most important enterprise and achieved com- 
plete success. With a force of 2500 men he marched 



The Rise cand Fall of New France 87 

rapidly to Oswego by the Mohawk route, crossed Lake 
Ontario, and on August 27 captured and de- , 

,' ^ .,,. - „ Brilliant 

stroyed Fort Frontenac, including a number oi exploit of 
French ships. From the strategic point of view Colonel 

^ . , • T Bradstreet 

this was a most important achievement, it gave 

the British control of Lake Ontario and isolated Fort Niagara 

and Fort Duquesne. 

General Forbes assembled his expedition at Philadelphia 
and decided to march through Pennsylvania instead of 
following Braddock's Road from Virginia. He xhe capture 
was late in starting and he proceeded with great of Fort Du- 
deliberation, erecting a line of blockhouses as *i"®^°®' ^ 75 
he advanced. After the fall of Fort Frontenac he inten- 
tionally delayed his advance, hoping that the motley array 
of Indians whom the commander of. Fort Duquesne had 
summoned from the northwest would grow wearj^ and 
return home. This proved a wise policy, for not only did 
the Indians desert, but the Canadian militia returned home 
for the winter, leaving the commandant with only four or 
five hundred men. When the British reached the fort, 
November 25, 1758, they found that the French had blown 
up the stronghold, burned their stores, and fled. Washing- 
ton had the satisfaction of raising the British flag over the 
ruins. A new fort was erected and named Pittsburg in honor 
of England's great war minister. 

Operations against Canada were actively pushed in 1759. 
The main attack was directed against Quebec along two 
lines. A military expedition commanded by ^^ifg 
Wolfe, now holding the rank of major general, selected to 
and convoyed by a fleet under Admiral Saunders, theexpedi- 
was to proceed up the St. Lawrence, while Am- tion against 
herst, who had been appointed to succeed Aber- ^"^ *^ 
cromby as commander-in-chief, was to advance by way of 
Lakes George and Champlain. Wolfe, whom Pitt selected 
to lead the attack against Quebec, was only thirty-two 



88 The Colonies 

years of age, and in spite of bodily frailties, possessed a 
most remarkable and impressive personality. In figure he 
was tall, slender, and narrow-shouldered. His portraits show 
a weak profile, receding forehead and chin, a slightly up- 
turned nose, and red hair. lie had a very sensitive nature, 
and was naturally optimistic, but was subject to occasional 
fits of despondency. Although a strict disciplinarian he 
was greatly beloved by his men. 

The fleet left Louisburg June 1, with 9000 soldiers and 
18,000 sailors and marines. On learning of Wolfe's ex- 
Montcaim's pedition Montcalm collected 17,000 men at 
able defense Quebec, 2000 of whom garrisoned the fortress, 
while the main force under his immediate command was 
stationed below the city, along the St. Charles River, with 
its left extending to the gorge of the Montmorenci, seven 
miles below. This position protected the passage of the 
St. Charles, which seemed the only possible approach to the 
town. The city of Quebec was built on a rocky promontory 
between the St. Lawrence and the St. Charles and was pro- 
tected on the St. Lawrence side by a steep declivity of 
three hundred feet. 

On June 26, the British fleet anchored off the Island of 
Orleans, opposite Montcalm's camp. Wolfe seized Point 
Levis on the mainland opposite Quebec and made several 
assaults upon Montcalm's front, in one of which he suc- 
ceeded in landing a considerable force, but they were re- 
pulsed with the loss of five hundred men. He then moved 
his main camp to the heights of Montmorenci. The gorge 
which separated the two camps enabled each army to act 
on the defensive but made an attack on either extremely 
difficult. Meanwhile Wolfe had no news of Amherst and the 
situation was becoming critical. Amherst met with so many 
delays and the French opposed his advance so stoutly that he 
finally abandoned his plan of invading Canada that season. 

During the latter part of August Wolfe was seriously ill 









1713-1754 



EUROPEAN POSSESSIONS 

IN 
AMERICA, 1664-1775 



r I English 

I I French 

I I Spanish 



The Rise and Fall of New France 89 

and gloom settled down over the camp. Early in September 
he was able to be up again, and, in view of the approaching 
winter season, he decided that he must attack i^^if^ j^^^g 
the enemy at once or abandon the enterprise, above the 
After a conference with his officers he deter- " ^ 
mined to attempt a landing above the city. With this end 
in view he broke up his camp at Montmorenci and em- 
barked his troops aboard his ships. For several days a part 
of the fleet floated up and down with the tide past Que})ec 
for the purpose of disconcerting the enemy. Finally during 
the night of September 12, with 1700 picked men in thirty 
open boats Wolfe floated down the river from a point above 
the city, and before daylight landed unobserved about two 
miles above Quebec at the point now known as Wolfe's 
Cove. A party of twenty-four men followed a winding 
path up the steep ascent and surprised and overcame the 
guard of one hundred men at the top. The rest of the party 
quickly followed and by sunrise Wolfe had a force of 4500 
men on the Plains of Abraham before the walls of Quebec. 

When Montcalm heard the astounding news at his head- 
quarters ten miles distant he hastened with his troops across 
the St. Charles and the battle began. The 
struggle was short and decisive. Wolfe was killed manderT' 
just as the French line gave way before the final killed on the 

Plains of 
Abraham 



British charge, and Montcalm was borne into ^'"^ ° 



the city mortally wounded. Four daj's later the 
garrison of Quebec surrendered and the English entered 
the city. The next year Montreal was captured by the 
English and the war in America came to an end. 

The European war dragged on for many months. In 
1762 England was forced l)y the conduct of Spain to de- 
clare war and Havana and Manila were both The Treaty 
captured by British fleets. The final treaty of of Paris, 
peace was signed at Paris, February 10, 17G3. ^"^ ^ 
Bute, who shortly after the accession of George III had 



90 The Colonies 

succeeded Pitt, was too eager for peace and was severely 
criticized for dealing too liberally with France and Spain. 
England retained practically all of India, where the tide of 
war had turned in her favor at the battle of Plassey, won by 
the brilliant action of Clive in 1757. In the West Indies, 
England returned Guadeloupe and Martinique to France 
and Cuba to Spain, retaining, however, Tobago, Dominica, 
Granada, and St. Vincent. 

On the continent England acquired Canada and all the 
French possessions east of the Mississippi River, save the 
island of Orleans on which the city of New Orleans stands. 
England also received Florida from Spain in exchange for 
the restoration of Cuba. Before the treaty was formally 
concluded Louis XV ceded the city of New Orleans and 
all of the province of Louisiana west of the Mississippi River 
to Spain as a compensation for her losses during the war. 
The division of North America by this treaty was very simple. 
France was excluded and the continent, divided between 
England and Spain, the Mississippi constituting the bound- 
ary line. 

The last act in the drama was the great Indian conspiracy 
formed by Pontiac, the chief of the Ottawas. France's 
former Indian allies on the upper lakes were not 
spiracyof disposed to accept the terms of the Peace of 
Pontiac, Paris, and during the summer of 1763 most of 
the English frontier posts were attacked and 
the entire frontier terrorized by scalping parties. Virginia 
and Maryland were especially active in defending the fron- 
tier, but Pennsylvania refused to render any assistance. 
The Indian confederacy finally went to pieces, and in 1765 
Pontiac came to terms. The Indians continued their 
efforts to keep the settlers from coming over the moun- 
tains and local fights were common, but there was no 
further trouble on a large scale until the eve of the Revo- 
lution. 



The Rise and Fall of New France 91 



TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. French Settlements in Canada: Channing, History of the 
United States, Vol. I, pp. 100-110; R. G. Thwaites, France in 

America, Chaps. I-III ; Parkman, Pioneers of France, pp. 169- 
233, 296-324; Parkman, The Jesuits in North America. 

2. The French in Louisiana: Channing, Vol. II, pp. 527-537; 
Thwaites, Chaps. IV, V ; Fiske, New France and New England, 
Chap. IV. 

3. The Earlier French and Indian Wars : Channing, Vol. II, 
pp. 537-554; Greene, Pr(>innci<d America, Chaps. VIII-X; 
Thwaites, Chaps. VI, VII ; Fiske, Chap. VII. 

4. The Contest for the Ohio Valley: Channing, Vol. II, pp. 
554-562 ; Fiske, Chap. VIII ; Thwaites, Chaps. IX-XI. 

5. The Conquest of Canada : Channing, Vol. II, Chap. XIX ; 
Fiske, Chaps. IX, X; Thwaites, Chaps. XIII-XVII ; Parkman, 
Montcalm and Wolfe. 



PART II 

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 

CHAPTER V 
CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 

The American Revolution in the broader sense covers a 

period of twenty years, from 1763 to 1783. Twelve years 

„ , , of skillful debate, involving a broad discussion of 
Results of .... ,,..,,. 

the French constitutional questions and political theories, 

and Indian preceded the eight years of warfare. The French 
and Indian War revealed certain defects in the 
British colonial system which naturally suggested reform, 
and at the same time the conquest of Canada by removing 
the most serious danger that threatened the colonies from 
the outside broke one of the strongest ties that bound them 
to the mother country, and made their independence a po- 
litical possibility. Furthermore the war had given the 
Americans military experience and the opportunity to test 
their fighting capacity beside the best British soldiers. 

The arrogance of the British officers and soldiers and 
the open contempt in which they held the colonial troops 
that had cooperated with them in the war had helped to 
bring the latter closer together and to make them aware of 
the differences between themselves and the English. Some 
idea of the lack of cordial feeling between the British regulars 
and the colonial volunteers may be formed from the expres- 
sions of the two noblest men engaged in the war. After 

92 



97 92 87 ^ 




Causes of the Revolution 93 

Braddock's defeat Washington wrote to Governor Dinwiddle : 
"The dastardly behavior of the Enghsh soldiers exposed 
all those who were inclined to do their duty to almost cer- 
tain death." Wolfe, on the other hand, when he heard 
of the defeat of Abercromby at Ticonderoga wrote to 
Lord George Sackville : " The Americans are in general the 
dirtiest most contemptible cowardly dogs that you can con- 
ceive. There is no dependence upon 'em in action. They 
fall down dead in their own dirt and desert by battalions, 
officers and all. Such rascals as those are rather an encum- 
brance than any real strength to an army." 

In view of these facts the close of the French and Indian 
War was an unfortunate time for undertaking a reform of 
the colonial system and attempting to tighten character 
the reins of imperial control. Furthermore the and policy of 
government of England was not at this time in ^°^^^ 
the hands of wise statesmen capable of successfully carrying 
through such a policy. In 1760 George III came to the 
throne. He had been poorly educated, was ignorant and 
narrow minded, and was bent on following the advice which 
his mother had repeatedly given him in his youth : "George, 
be a king." His one fixed purpose was to exalt the power 
of the crown at the expense of Parliament. When he came 
to the throne the government had been for half a century 
in the hands of a Whig oligarchy. In order to overthrow 
the Whig leaders George III built up a party known as the 
King's Friends. This party brought on the American 
Revolution and controlled the British government during 
the war. The ablest statesmen of the age, Chatham, Burke, 
and Fox, belonged to the opposition, and tlieir efforts to 
bring about reconciliation with America were treated with 
scorn. 

The Seven Years' War had left England supreme not 
only in America, but in India and on the high seas as well. 
Mainlv through the genius of Pitt this magnificent empire 



94 The American Revolution 

had been created, and the need for a more comprehensive 
and efficient system of hnperial control had come to be felt. 
Defe ts in '^^^ ^^^ ^^ America naturally suggested certain 
the colonial reforms. In the first place it showed that the old 
system system of making requisitions on the several col- 

onies for troops could not provide a sufficient force for their 
defense. Some of the colonies refused to provide for the levies 
at all, others promised to comply with the requisitions, but 
failed to send the full number, while none of them could be 
counted upon to send their full quotas into the field at the 
time appointed. 

In the second place the French and Indian War showed 
that more stringent measures were necessary for the enforce- 
ment of the acts of trade. The Molasses Act of 
withthT 1733 had never been rigidly enforced; in fact 
French West the prosperity of the northern colonies was, to a 
great extent, based on its violation. The British 
West Indies could not furnish an adequate supply of molasses 
for the manufacture of New England rum, which was ex- 
tensively used in the fisheries and was absolutely indispensable 
in the Indian trade and in the slave trade. The New Eng- 
landers had therefore continued to buy molasses in the French 
West Indies. This illicit trade had been winked at by the 
British officials in time of peace, but its continuance in time 
of war neutralized to a large extent the work of the British 
navy. 

This trade was continued partly by the connivance of 
colonial governors who issued commissions to vessels au- 
thorizing them to visit French colonies ostensibly for the 
purpose of exchanging prisoners, such vessels being popu- 
larly called "flags of -truce." The greatest sinners in this 
matter were Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. The governor 
of the latter colony openly sold such passes for large sums of 
money. This trade not only helped the enemy directly, 
but it seriously interfered with military operations by 



Causes of the Revolution 95 

rendering provisions scarce and expensive. Such large 
quantities of foodstuffs were taken to the French West 
Indies, where they brought high prices, that provisions had 
to be brought from Europe to supply the needs of the Brit- 
ish army in America. Amherst and other British com- 
manders protested vigorously against this trade with the 
enemy and openly denounced it as disloyal. The attempt 
of the custom house officials in Boston to break it up led to 
the celebrated controversy over "writs of assistance." 

Writs of assistance were general search warrants issued 
to customs officials to aid them in finding smuggled goods. 
These writs were first issued by the superior writs of 
court of Massachusetts during the French and assistance 
Indian War for the purpose of enabling the customs officers 
to break up the illicit trade with the French West Indies. 
James Otis resigned the office of advocate general because 
he beheved the writs to be illegal and tyrannical, and. he was 
employed by the merchants of Boston to contest their 
legality. In his famous speech before the court he de- 
nounced the writs as the worst instrument of arbitrary power 
and as contrary to the principles of civil liberty and of right. 
He boldly declared that the exercise of this kind of power 
had "cost one king of England his head, and another his 
throne." The case was decided against him and the writs 
continued to be issued, but his argument made a great im- 
pression on the people, and he was the popular idol of New 
England in the opening scenes of the Revolution. 

The drift of public sentiment in Virginia was revealed by 
Patrick Henry's argument in the famous " Parson's Cause." 
In 1758, as a result of the failure of the crop and ^^^ 
the high price of tobacco, the Assembly enacted " Parson's 
that for one year all debts might be paid either in 
tobacco or in money at the rate of twopence a pound ; hence 
the measure was known as the Twopenny Act. As the 
salaries of the clergy were paid in tobacco and as that com- 



96 



The American Revolution 



modity was then selling at three times the rate fixed by the 
Assembly, the act seems to have hit the clergy harder than 
any other class of creditors, and they sent an agent to Lon- 
don to lay their case before the Board of Trade. On August 
10, 1759, the act was disallowed by the king in council. 
Several of the clergy later brought suit to recover the full 

amount of their salaries 
in tobacco. 

The suit which at- 
tracted most attention 
was that of Reverend 
James Maury of Louisa 
County, in which Patrick 
Henry, then twenty-seven 
years of age, appeared 
for the vestry, which was 
the defendant in the case. 
In his argument before 
the jury he declared that 
the disallowance by the 
king of the act of 1758 
was an instance of mis- 
rule and that "by this 
conduct the king, from 
being the father of his 
people, had degenerated 
into a tyrant and for- 
feited all right to his subjects' obedience." At this point 
there was a subdued murmur of "Treason, treason," to which 
Henry paid no attention. He concluded with a severe 
arraignment of the clergy whose cause was by no means 
popular. The result was that the jury brought in a verdict 
of one penny damages for the plaintiff. Patrick Henry 
and the "Parson's Cause" were both ever afterwards famous. 
His speech made a profound impression and his attack on 




Patrick Henry. 



Causes of the Revolution 97 

the royal prerogative tended to bring to a focus the growing 
dissatisfaction over outside interference with the acts of the 
Assembly. 

In April, 1763, George Grenville, who had just been ap- 
pointed prime minister, announced the intention of keeping 

an army of 10,000 men in America and of tax- , 

• -1 rrii Anew 

ing the colonies for its partial support. These colonial 

troops were to be used to garrison the forts that policy an- 

^ nounced 

had been taken from the French, to protect the 
frontier against the Indians, and to guard against foreign 
attack. There was also no doubt the more remote idea 
that these troops might be used in securing a more rigid 
enforcement of the acts of trade. 

In pursuance of the new policy Parliament passed the 
Sugar Act of 1764 and the Stamp Act of 1765. The Sugar 
Act was a very comprehensive measure designed The Sugar 
to raise a colonial revenue and to introduce ad- Act of 1764 
ministrative reforms into the old colonial system. The 
Molasses Act of 1733 had placed a duty of sixpence a gallon 
on molasses. This duty was prohibitory and, as has al- 
ready been shown, the act had never been enforced. By 
the new act the duty on molasses was reduced to threepence. 
The old prohibitive duty had failed to produce a revenue, 
while the new duty did. High import duties were also 
imposed on wines brought to the colonies from the Madeiras 
and southern Europe. There were many other details of 
the act which need not be described, as the duty on molasses 
was the feature that aroused the principal opposition. 

The earlier acts of ti»de had not been primarily fiscal 
measures, — that is, their main purpose had not been to 
raise a revenue, but to regulate the commerce of the British 
empire. The act of 1764 was the first act whose main pur- 
pose was to tax the colonies and as such it marked a new de- 
parture in colonial policy and aroused opposition, but this 
opposition was confined to New England and the middle 



98 The American Revolution 

colonies. The southern colonies were not materially affected 
by it. It was difficult to find a ground on which to assail 
the new measure, for, in outward form at least, it re- 
sembled other acts of Parliament the validity of which 
had never been seriously questioned. 

The case was quite different, however, with the Stamp 
Act of 1765 which, by the imposition of internal as dis- 
The stamp tinguished from external taxes, was new in form. 
Act of 1765 II required that every newspaper, pamphlet, bill, 
note, bond, lease, license, insurance policy, ship's clearance 
paper, college diploma, every instrument used in the con- 
veyance of real and personal property, and all other legal 
documents should be written or printed on stamped vellum 
or paper to be sold by public officials. 

While this measure was unfavorably received by the people 
it looked for some time as if there would be no organized 
opposition to it. James Otis, the leading spirit in New Eng- 
land, said: "It is the duty of all humbly and silently to 
acquiesce in all the decisions of the supreme legislature. 
Nine hundred and ninety-nine in a thousand of the colonists 
will never once entertain a thought but of submission to our 
sovereign and to the authority of Parliament in all possible 
contingencies. They undoubtedly have the right to levy 
internal taxes on the colonies." Hutchinson, the lieutenant 
governor of Massachusetts, wrote to the ministry: "The 
Stamp Act is received among us with as much decency as 
could be expected ; it leaves no room for evasion, and will 
execute itself." A majority of the governors wrote to the 
British ministry that the act wouM be enforced. 

The first serious opposition came from Virginia. The 
Assembly met in May, 1765, and on the 29th the House of 
Patrick Burgesses took up a consideration of the new 

Henry's stamp duties. Patrick Henry, who had recently 
resolutions ^^^^ elected to fill a vacancy and who had taken 
his seat only nine days before, offered a set of five resolu- 



Causes of the Revolution 99 

tions, in which he asserted that the American colonists were 
entitled to all the privileges, liberties, and immunities pos- 
sessed by the people of Great Britain ; that the right of the 
people to tax themselves or to be taxed by persons chosen 
by themselves was the distinguishing characteristic of British 
freedom; and, finally, "that the general assembly of this 




Patrick Henry Addressing the Virginia House of Burgesses 
in 1765 in support of his resolutions against the Stamp Act. 

colony have the only and sole exclusive right and power to 
lay taxes and impositions upon the inhabitants of this 
colony, and that every attempt to vest such power in any 
person or persons whatsoever, other than the general as- 
sembly aforesaid, has a manifest tendency to destroy British 
as well as American freedom." 

On the fifth resolution which embodied the words just 
quoted, an angry debate ensued and Patrick Henry delivered 



100 The American Revolution 

a memorable speech, at the conclusion of which, after de- 
nouncing the tyranny of the Stamp Act, he exclaimed : 
"Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the first his Crom- 
onthl^it?- well, and George the third—" "Treason!" 
lutionsin sliouted the Speaker, and "Treason, treason," 
As^sembiT^ echoed from every part of the house. Fixing his 
flashing eye firmly on the Speaker, Henry added, 
"may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the 
most of it." 

The vote on the resolutions is not recorded, but they were 
carried by the support of the members from the upper or 
western counties with the aid of six members from Mr. 
Henry's immediate section of the state. "By these resolu- 
tions," said Jefferson, "and his manner of supporting them, 
Mr. Henry took the lead out of the hands of those who had 
theretofore guided the proceedings of the house ; that is to 
say, of Pendleton, Wythe, Bland and Randolph." It was 
indeed a great personal triumph for Henry. He was the first 
leader to organize the men of the Piedmont section and of the 
Valley against the more aristocratic planters of Tidewater. 

Henry's resolutions, coming from Virginia, the oldest 
and most loyal of the colonies, created intense excitement. 
The effect of ^^^^Y people who were utterly opposed to the 
Henry's Stamp Act thought that the resolutions went 
resoutions ^^^ £^^ Even James Otis pronounced them 
treasonable and Governor Hutchinson of Massachusetts 
declared that "nothing extravagant appeared in the papers 
till an account was received of the Virginia resolves." Patrick 
Henry's leadership in organizing resistance to British tax- 
ation was recognized on both sides of the Atlantic. Ed- 
mund Burke in his great speech on American taxation, April 
19, 1774, declared on the floor of the House of Commons 
that the Virginia resolutions were the cause of the insur- 
rections in Massachusetts and the other colonies. 

When the names of the stamp distributors were announced 



Causes of the Revolution 101 

in Boston serious riots occurred. A brother-in-law of Gov- 
ernor Hutchinson, who had accepted one of the appointments, 
was burned in effigy and forced to resign. In August a 
mob burned the records of the vice admiralty court at Bos- 
ton, sacked the house of the collector of customs, and de- 
stroyed the private dwelling of Hutchinson. Similar out- 
rages took place at Newport, Rhode Island, and popular 
indignation against those who had accepted the post of stamp 
distributors burst forth into acts of violence in most of the 
colonies. This form of opposition was carried on by ir- 
regular associations known as Sons of Liberty which sprang 
up in all parts of the colonies. Meanwhile at the suggestion 
of the Massachusetts Assemblj^, nine of the colonies had 
chosen delegates to meet in New York for the purpose of 
petitioning the crown for relief. By the time this congress 
met every stamp distril)utor on the continent had resigned 
his position and the act had been practically nullified. 

The resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress which met 
in October were couched in loyal and respectful language, 

but they asserted for the colonists the full rights „ . . 
1 Ti' • c 1 • Resolutions 

and liberties of natural-born subjects; they of the stamp 
denied that taxes could be imposed on them except ^'^^ 

. , , . 11- Congress 

With their own consent or by their representa- 
tives ; they claimed that as the colonies could not be repre- 
sented in the House of Commons, no taxes could be con- 
stitutionally imposed on them except by their respective 
legislatures ; that the duties imposed by several late acts 
of Parliament were burdensome and grievous ; that, as the 
profits of the trade of the colonies ultimately centered in 
Great Britain to pay for the manufactures which they bought 
there, the colonists eventually contributed to all supplies 
granted to the crown ; in conclusion, they petitioned the 
king and both houses of Parliament for the repeal of the 
Stamp Act and of the late acts for the restriction of American 
commerce. 



102 The American Revolution 

These resolutions were read in the House of Commons 
and precipitated a short debate, but no action was taken. 
Meanwhile a crisis had come in the affairs of the 
the Stamp British ministry over the Regency Bill, and 
Act, March, ^he Marquis of Rockingham, leader of the old 
Whig aristocracy, had been called upon to form 
a new ministry, July 10, 1765. It was some time before the 
new government seemed to realize that the Stamp Act had 
brought the colonies to the verge of rebellion. 

Opposition to the measure was not confined to America. 
English merchants and manufacturers were suffering from 
the failure of the colonists to pay for the goods they had 
already bought and to give orders for more. Petitions for 
repeal were therefore coming in from the merchants of many 
of the cities and towns of England. George III seemed 
moreover to be greatly disturbed at the accounts of the riots 
in America, and in January, 1766, he laid the whole matter 
before Parliament. After one of the most memorable de- 
bates that ever took place in that body, the Stamp Act 
was finally repealed in March, 1766, and the Sugar Act was 
a little later modified by placing the very low duty of one 
penny a gallon on all molasses imported into the colonies. 
Along with the repeal of the Stamp Act was passed the so- 
called Declaratory Act, which asserted the unlimited right of 
Parliament to legislate for the colonies. The news of the 
repeal of the Stamp Act was received with great rejoicing 
in America, but the rejoicing was short-lived. Many per- 
sons were displeased at the Declaratory Act and some talked 
of united opposition. But the main trouble arose over 
the act of 1765 requiring the colonial assemblies to make 
provision for quartering the king's troops in America. 
The New York Assembly was the first to refuse com- 
pliance. 

In July, 1766, the Rockingham ministry resigned and 
the Duke of Grafton became the nominal head of the gov- 



Causes of the Revolution 103 

ernment, but it was understood that Pitt was to be the real 
head. He, however, shortly entered the House of Lords as 
Earl of Chatham and the loss of popularity which ^j^^ xown- 
this act entailed together with bad health pre- shend Acts 
vented him from taking a very active part in the °^ ^^^ 
affairs of the ministry. Charles Townshend, Chancellor of 
the Exchequer, now became leader of the cabinet and 
greatly to the surprise of everybody introduced three meas- 
ures relating to America which were passed in May, 1767 : 
(1) the New York Assembly was suspended until it should 
comply with the quartering act ; (2) a new board of Com- 
missioners of Customs was established in America with full 
powers to enforce the acts of trade ; (3) an import duty was 
laid on glass, red and white lead, paper, and tea. As so 
much emphasis had been laid by the opponents of the Stamp 
Act on the difference between external and internal taxes, 
Townshend thought that the Americans would have to 
submit to the new revenue law because it established only 
external taxes on imports. 

As a matter of fact there is no one consistent theory on 
which the action of the American colonies can be explained, 
for in each dispute with the home government Theoretical 
they assumed a more advanced position. In the basis of the 
first stage of the controversy they denied the ^^™^"*i°° 
right of Parliament to impose internal taxes. In opposition 
to the Townshend Acts they denied the right of Parliament 
to impose external taxes as well, and raised the cry of no 
taxation without representation. As representation in the 
British Parliament was, in view of the circumstances, an 
impossibihty, the natural and logical conclusion was that 
the crown was the only connecting link between the colonies 
and Great Britain. 

In searching for a theoretical basis for the Revolution we 
are naturally led to inquire what was the nature of the law 
by which the powers of Great Britain over the colonies were 



104 The American Revolution 

limited. Was it the British constitution which had been 
extended over the colonies? If so, by what acts was it ex- 
tended over them and in what way did it protect them? 
Was it the colonial charters on which they relied? Some of 
these had been annulled and one of them at least, that of 
Pennsylvania, expressly recognized the supreme authority 
of Parliament. 

Unable to find a basis in either the British constitution or 
the colonial charters on which they could rest their case, 
American lawyers, — for they were the real leaders of the 
Revolution, — took their stand, as the contest advanced, on 
the principle of natural law and the theory of natural rights. 
The declaration and resolves of the first Continental Congress, 
in 1774, rested the case on "the immutable laws of nature, 
the principles of the English constitution, and the several 
charters or compacts." The Declaration of Independence 
two years later rested the case solely on "the laws of nature 
and of nature's God." 

The earlier American historians looked at the Revolution 
as a struggle against tyranny embodied in the person of 
Historical George III. The most that can now be said in 
view of the substantiation of this view is that the colonies 
Revolution u^^^^^^^ ^j^^j^ stand," to use the words of Moses 
Coit Tyler, "not against tyranny inflicted, but only against 
tyranny anticipated." America had reached the point at 
which its social and economic development was being ham- 
pered by the connection with Great Britain, and the po- 
litical training that the colonists had received in their long 
struggle with the colonial governors and the political theories 
that were current in the latter half of the eighteenth century 
did not incline them to submit to what they considered 
injustice. 

In June, 1768, John Hancock's sloop, Liberty, entered 
Boston Harbor and undertook to land a cargo of wines from 
Madeira without paying the duty. When the customs 



Causes of the Revolution 105 

officials tried to seize the cargo, the crew resisted, and 
a riot was precipitated in the course of which the officials 
fled to the fort. When news of this riot reached 
England two additional regiments were ordered griti'sh" 
to Boston. When Parliament met in December troops sent 
they advised that an old statute of Henry VIII j°^g°^ °°' 
empowering the government to bring to England 
for trial prisoners accused of treason outside the kingdom 
should be put in force in America. 

The first protest against this measure came from Virginia, 
where the Assembly adopted a series of resolutions protest- 
ing against the Townshend Acts and beseeching the king 
not to permit his American subjects to be carried over the 
sea for trial. These resolutions were sent to the assemblies 
of the several colonies and their concurrence was asked. 
Lord Botetourt, the new governor, immediately dissolved 
the Assembly, but the members retired to the Apollo room of 
the Raleigh Tavern, where they signed an agreement that 
they would not import any more goods from England until 
the Townshend Acts should be repealed. The Virginia reso- 
lutions or similar declarations were adopted by all the as- 
semblies and nonimportation agreements signed. 

In Boston meanwhile things were reasonably quiet con- 
sidering the fact that troops were quartered in the city and 

that armed vessels were stationed in front of the , ^, 

The 
harbor. The situation was a trying one, however, Boston 

and the bitter feeling that existed between citi- ?^^^^^*^'^®' ' 
zens and soldiers broke out frequently in minor 
affrays. Finally, on March 5, 1770, a serious encounter 
occurred on the streets of Boston in which three persons 
were killed, two mortally wounded, and six injured. Several 
months later the soldiers were tried and acquitted by a Bos- 
ton jury. John Adams and Josiah Quincy appeared as their 
counsel. The citizens appear to have been more to blame 
than the soldiers in bringing on the "Boston massacre," 



106 The American Revolution 

but the real responsibility rested with the British min- 
istry. 

In January, 1770, the Duke of Grafton resigned the 
premiership and Lord North, the leader of the new Tory 
party, succeeded him. The king had at last 
the^Town- succeeded in dividing the old Whig party, and 
shendActs, ^he new Tory party, composed of the "king's 
^^^° friends," continued in control until the close of 

the Revolution. The king was in reality his own prime min- 
ister and carried out his own policies. On the very day of 
the Boston massacre Lord North moved a repeal of the 
Townshend Act, removing the duty on glass, paper, and 
lead, but retaining the duty on tea. The tax on tea was 
retained as a matter of principle in assertion of the right of 
parliamentary taxation. The government also announced 
that it would make no further attempt to raise a revenue in 
America, and the quartering act, which had been limited 
to three years, was allowed to expire. On learning of the 
repeal of the Townshend Act the Americans discontinued the 
nonimportation agreements, but associations were formed 
whose members pledged themselves not to drink tea. 

For a time agitation ceased and comparative quiet reigned 
in America. In North Carolina disturbances of a serious 
character, in no way connected with the dispute 
Carolina with England, occurred. The inhabitants of 
" Regu- what were then the western counties complained 
of excessive taxes, extortionate fees, and cor- 
ruption on the part of the colonial officials. Under the 
name of "Regulators" they undertook to manage their own 
affairs and refused to recognize the authority of the colonial 
government. In May, 1771, Governor Try on went to the 
seat of disaffection and defeated the Regulators in the pitched 
battle of the Alamance, leaving a large number dead on the 
field. This battle has frequently been referred to as the 
first battle of the Revolution, but it has no claim to that dis- 



Causes of the Revolution 



107 



tinction, for many of the men who commanded the militia 
under Governor Tryon were soon to be leaders in the Revolu- 
tionary movement. 

At the beginning of the Revolution the frontier had 
advanced well into the Alleghany Mountains, but at only 

two points Thebegin- 

had settlers nings of 

penetrated the Tennessee 

wilderness beyond : in 
the southwest there was 
a little group of settle- 
ments in eastern Ten- 
nessee, and in the north- 
west traders and settlers 
were gradually pushing 
their way from Fort Pitt 
down the Ohio River. 
The first settlers in Ten- 
nessee came from Virginia 
and were mainly of Scotch- 
Irish antecedents. In 
the little valley between 
the Cumberland and 
the Great Smoky mountains lie the streams which unite 
to form the Tennessee River, — the Clinch, the Holston, 
the Watauga, the Nolichucky, and the French Broad. 
The upper end of the valley lies in southwestern Virginia, 
and here on the headwaters of the Holston, the first set- 
tlement was formed by a body of Virginians. 

A year or two later, in 1769, the year that Daniel Boone 
first went to Kentucky, the first settlement was formed on 
the Watauga, then within the limits of North Carolina. 
As the settlements were growing, it was necessary to pro- 
vide some form of civil government, but as North Carolina 
was at this time engaged in the struggle with the Regulators, 




Daniel Boone. 



108 



The American Revolution 



it was useless to appeal to her for aid in governing the new 
community. About this time two men of unusual abiUty, 
who were destined to figure in history as the founders of 
Tennessee, came to Watauga, James Robertson in 1770, and 
John Sevier in 1772. They were both natives of Virginia, 
and for the next thirty years they played the chief part in 

the history of the south- 
west. In 1772 they 
organized a civil gov- 
ernment under a written 
constitution known as 
the Articles of the Wa- 
tauga Association, thus 
estabUshing the first in- 
dependent community of 
native-born Americans 
on the continent. The 
Watauga Association con- 
tinued as an independent 
community for four years, 
but in 1776, at its own 
request, it was received under the jurisdiction of North 
Carolina. 

On the very eve of the Revolution serious troubles oc- 
curred between the Indians and the Enghsh settlements 
along the upper waters of the Ohio. The feeling 
between the Indians and the "Long Knives," as 
they called the Virginians, was very tense when, 
in the spring of 1774, an outrage occurred which 
precipitated a border warfare. The most aggressive leaders 
among the whites were Michael Cresap, a native of Mary- 
land, and a man named Greathouse. About the last of 
April, Greathouse, who was in the habit of selling rum to 
the Indians, and his associates murdered a party of men, 
women, and children who had come to his place and who were 




Trail 

Clark's Route 

■•- + +++ Hamilton's Route 



S 0,1 Til 



Trouble 
with the 
Indians on 
the Ohio 



Causes of the Revolution 



109 



drunk with the hqiior which he had sold them. Among the 
slain was the entire family of the celebrated Iroquoian chief 
Logan, who hved west of the Ohio and was a leader among 
the tribes dwelling along the upper courses of the river. 
Logan, who had usually been friendly to the whites, was 
moved to revenge, and the tribes immediately took the 
warpath, creating terror along the whole frontier. 

liOrd Dunmore, the governor of Virginia, immediately 
garrisoned the frontier forts and began raising an army to 
lead against the Indians. One wing he led in person to 
Fort Pitt, while the other, composed of levies from the west- 
ern and southwestern loj-^ Dun- 
portions of the colony, mores War, 
was placed under the ^^^"^ 
command of General Andrew 
Lewis. The latter was to collect 
his forces on the Greenbriai- and 
proceed clown the Kanawha to 
the Ohio, where it was agreed 
that Dunmore should meet him. 
When Dunmore got to Fort Pitt, 
however, he changed his plans, 
crossed the Ohio, and established 
himself in a fortified camp near 
the Indian town of Chillicothe. 
Cornstalk, the great chief of the 
Shawnees, who had under his 
command about a thousand war- 
riors, now determined upon a 
bold piece of strategy. He de- 
cided to intercept General Lewis at the mouth of the Kan- 
awha, destroy his division, and then return to face Dun- 
more. 

Meanwhile General Lewis, with troops from Augusta and 
Botetourt counties and from the distant Watauga settle- 




LoRD Dunmore. 



110 The American Revolution 

ments, was proceeding down the Kanawha. On October 6, 

they camped on Point Pleasant, the point of land jutting 

out between the Kanawha and the Ohio, to 

Point^ °* await news of Dunmore. Four days later they 

Pleasant, were attacked before daylight by Cornstalk. The 

October, battle which followed was more hotly contested 
1774 . 

than any other Indian battle on record. The 

numbers engaged were about equal and they fought from 
early morning until nightfall. The Virginians lost seventy- 
five men killed and one hundred and forty wounded. The 
Indians sustained losses only about half as great, but 
they finally retired from the conflict sullen and crest- 
fallen. 

After the battle Lewis crossed the Ohio and marched to 
join Dunmore. When he reached the camp he found that 
Dunmore had already made a treaty of peace with the In- 
dian tribes. Logan alone refused to treat with him. To 
Lord Dunmore's messenger he delivered a speech which is 
considered the finest outburst of Indian eloquence recorded. 
It was soon evident, however, that Logan did not intend to 
continue hostilities and Dunmore marched home. 

The Virginians who were with Andrew Lewis resented 
Lord Dunmore's change of plan which cost them so dearly. 
Results of ^^^ they also objected to his haste in making 
Dunmore's peace with the Indians who they thought de- 

" served greater punishment. Afterwards, in view 

of Lord Dunmore's harsh conduct at the beginning of the 
Revolution, the view became current that he had acted with 
treachery toward Andrew Lewis and that he had made easy 
terms with the Indians in order that they might continue their 
ravages against the western settlements and thus aid England 
in the coming struggle with her colonists ; but such a view 
seems wholly untenable. However that may be, Lord 
Dunmore's War had most important results. It kept the 
Indians quiet during the early years of the Revolution and 



Causes of the Revolution 111 

gave the frontiersmen who were pushing over the Alleghanies 
an opportunity to become well settled in Kentucky. 

TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. The New Colonial Policy of George III : Channing, History 
of the United States, Vol. Ill, Chaps. I, II; G. E. Howard, Pre- 
liminaries of the Revolution, Chaps. I-VI ; G. L. Beer, British 
Colonial Policij, 1754-1765, Chaps. IX-XI ; W. W. Henry, Patrick 
Henry, Vol. I, Chap. III. 

2. The Stamp Act Controversy: Channing, Vol. Ill, Chap. Ill; 
Howard, Chaps. VII-IX ; Beer, Chaps. XIII, XIV; Henry, 
Patrick Henry, Vol. I, Ohap. IV. 

3. The Townshend Acts of 1767: Channing, Vol. Ill, Chap. 
IV ; Howard, Chap. X. 

4. The Dispatch of Troops to Boston: Channing, Vol. Ill, 
Chap. V ;, Howard, Chap. XI; Fiske, American Revolution, Vol. 
I, pp. 46-72. 

5. Conditions on the Western Frontier: Howard, Chap. XIII; 
Theodore Roosevelt, The Winning of the West, Vol. I, Chaps. V- 
VII ; H. A. Bruce, Daniel Boone and the Wildei-ness Road. 

6. Lord Dunmore's "War : Fiske, Vol. II, pp. 94-101 ; Roosevelt, 
Vol. I, Chaps. VIII, IX; R. G. Thwaites and L. P. Kellogg, Docu- 
mentary History of Dunmore's War. 



CHAPTER VI 
THE ATTEMPT TO COERCE MASSACHUSETTS 

While the events narrated at the close of the last chapter 

were taking place along the western frontier, affairs were 

rapidly reaching a crisis in New England. The 

The burning ^ "^ ^ , 1,11, 

of the attempt to execute the revenue laws had led to 

Gaspee, serious trouble in Rhode Island. On June 9, 
1772 

1772, the British armed sloop Gaspee, which had 

been particularly active in searching for smuggled goods, 
ran aground, and that night was boarded by an armed party 
from Providence, who seized the crew, bound and set them 
ashore, and burned the vessel to the water's edge. When 
news of this affair reached England, a commission was sent 
to America to hold an investigation, with authority to ar- 
rest the offenders and send them to England for trial. 

In Massachusetts Samuel Adams was now the most 
active and influential leader. He was a man of great energy, 
courage, and tenacity of purpose and had a 
Samuel remarkable talent for political organization. On 

pos^e™the°" November 2, 1772, he moved in the Boston town 
appointment meeting "that a committee of correspondence be 
committees appointed to consist of twenty-one persons to 
of corre- state the rights of the colonists and of this province 

spondence, • i- 1 r^i • ^- 1 i 

j,7^2 "^ particular, as men, as Christians, and as sub- 

jects; to communicate and publish the same to 
the several towns and to the world as the sense of this town, 
with the infringements and violations thereof that have 
been, or from time to time may be made." Other Mas- 
sachusetts towns followed the example of Boston and ap- 
pointed similar committees. 

112 



The Attempt to Coerce Massachusetts 113 

The proposal for intercolonial committees of correspond- 
ence came from Virginia, and the step was taken as a result 
of the uneasiness created by the appointment of jQ^gj.- 
the Gaspee commission and a proposal to send colonial 
Americans to England for trial. On March 12, ^J'J,'^"^^' 
1773, on motion of Dabney Carr, the House of spondence 
Burgesses appointed a standing committee for ^he'vh-ginia 
intercolonial correspondence. Among its mem- Assembly, 
bers were Richard Bland, Dabney Carr, Patrick ^'^'^^ 
Henry, Richard Henry Lee, and Thomas Jefferson. The 
committee was instructed to inform itself on the subject of 
the Gaspee commission, and the other colonial assemblies 
were requested to form similar committees of correspond- 
ence. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, 
Rhode Island, and South Carolina promptly complied 
with the request. The appointment of these committees 
laid the foundation for the union of the colonies. 

In December, 1773, measures were taken by several of 
the Massachusetts towns to prevent the landing of tea 
and payment of duty. On December 16 a party The Boston 
of fifty or sixty men disguised as Mohawk Indians " Tea 
and directed by Samuel Adams boarded three ^ ^' ^^'^^ 
ships in Boston Harbor, broke open the chests of tea, and 
threw the contents into the bay. Similar occurrences took 
place within a short time at other ports. At Philadelphia 
a mob collected to destroy a cargo of tea, but the captain 
of the ship sailed back to England. At Wilmington, North 
Carolina, a cargo of tea was thrown into the sea. 

At Charleston, South Carolina, the consignees, under the 
pressure of public opinion, refused to receive a large quantity 
of tea and it was seized by the collector and stored in cellars 
under the exchange. Three years later it was sold and 
the proceeds paid into the state treasury. At Annapolis, 
Maryland, more extreme action was taken. The Peggy 
Stewart, soon after her arrival with a cargo of tea, was boarded 



114 



The American Revolution 



by a mob and burned to the water's edge. The Boston "tea 
party" attracted most attention because the eyes of the 
ministry were fixed on Massachusetts. 

When the British Pariiament met in March, 1774, the 
ministry reahzed that they had a serious crisis to face. 
The five They determined to repress the disorders in 
coercive acts America and adopted five coercive measures : 
o 1774 Q) 'pj^g pQj.^ Qf Boston was closed and the custom- 

house moved to Salem. English warships were ordered 

to be stationed before 
Boston for the purpose of 
maintaining the blockade. 

(2) The Massachusetts 
government was reorgan- 
ized so as to take away 
from the people many 
of the powers of self- 
government which they 
had hitherto exercised. 

(3) Crown officers or 
magistrates accused of 
murder or other capital 
offenses were to be sent 
by the governor to some 
other colony or to Eng- 
land for trial, if he 

William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. thought that a fair trial 

could not be had in the province. (4) The quartering 
of troops upon the inhabitants of the colonies was 
legalized. (5) The fifth statute was the so-called Quebec 
Act, by the terms of which the territory northwest of the 
Ohio River was annexed to the province of Quebec. These 
measures were carried through Parliament by a very large 
majority. Chatham in the House of Lords and Burke 
and Fox in the House of Commons spoke against them in 




The Attempt to Coerce Massachusetts 115 

vain. Charles Fox's brother, Stephen, also spoke against 
the measures. He said: ''We are either to treat the 
Americans as subjects or as rebels. If we treat them as 
subjects, the bill goes too far ; if as rebels, it does not go far 
enough." 

The Boston port bill was to go into effect June 1. This 
measure especially created general indignation throughout 
the colonies. The first action was taken by ^emijers of 
Virginia. On May 24, 1774, the House of Bur- the Virginia 
gesses adopted a set of resolutions drafted by ^^q^^^^ 
Thomas Jefferson, setting aside June 1 "as a general con- 
day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer ; devoutly ^^^^^' ^'^74 
to implore the divine interposition, for averting the heavy 
calamity which threatens destruction to our civil rights, 
and the. evils of civil war ; to give us one heart and one 
mind firmly to oppose, by all just and proper means, every 
injury to American rights ; and that the mind of His Majesty 
and his Parliament may be inspired from above with wisdom, 
moderation, and justice, to remove from the loyal people 
of America all cause of danger from a continued pursuit of 
measures pregnant with their ruin." As a result of these 
resolutions Lord Dunmore dissolved the house, but the 
members met unofficially in the Raleigh Tavern and adopted 
a resolution recommending an annual congress of all the 
colonies. 

The suggestion of Virginia met with a cordial response. 
Delegates to the Congress were selected in various ways. 
In Pennsylvania and Rhode Island they were 
chosen by the legislature ; in Massachusetts by continental 
the lower house ; in Connecticut by the com- Congress, 
mittee of correspondence ; in South Carolina by a ^ ^?„t™ 

. . . .5. 1774 

public meeting of the inhabitants of the province 
held at Charleston ; in New Hampshire, New Jersey, Dela- 
ware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina by local con- 
ventions of town or county. New York was not fully 



116 The American Revolution 

represented, and Georgia sent no delegates at all. When 
Massachusetts elected her delegates, June 17, she suggested 
that the Congress convene in Philadelphia on the first of 
September, thus completing the call issued by Virginia. 

This body, which is known as the first Continental Con- 
gress, began its work in Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, 
September 5, 1774. Among the fifty-five delegates were 
many men destined to fame : John Adams and Samuel 
Adams from Massachusetts ; Stephen Hopkins from Rhode 
Island ; Roger Sherman and Silas Deane from Connecticut ; 
James Duane and John Jay from New York ; Joseph Gallo- 
way, John Dickinson, and Thomas Mifflin from Pennsyl- 
vania; Caesar Rodney, George Read, and Thomas McKean 
from Delaware ; Henry Middleton, Christopher Gadsden, 
and the two Rutledges from South Carolina ; and from 
Virginia, Peyton Randolph, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harri- 
son, Edmund Pendleton, Richard Henry Lee, Patrick Henry, 
and George Washington. 

Peyton Randolph was elected president of the Congress 
and the sessions were held behind closed doors. No record 
of the proceedings was kept. On October 14 
adopted by ^ series of resolutions was adopted, known as the 
the Declaration and Resolves. In these resolutions 

ongress ^^^^ grievances of the colonies were stated at 
length and their rights asserted. On October 20, the Con- 
gress adopted a nonimportation and nonexportation agree- 
ment as the most effectual means of securing a redress of 
grievances. They agreed that after the first of the follow- 
ing December they would not import any goods or mer- 
chandise from Great Britain or Ireland ; nor would they 
export goods to Great Britain, Ireland, or the West Indies 
after September 10, 1775. They also agreed to discontinue 
entirely the slave trade. Besides these two important meas- 
ures the Congress drew up a petition to the king, an ad- 
dress to the people of Great Britain, and a memorial to the 



The Attempt to Coerce Massachusetts 117 



people of the colonies. They also issued an invitation to 
the people of Canada to send delegates to the Congress which 
was called for the following year. 

Meanwhile all eyes were turned to Boston, which was 
occupied by British troops and blockaded by a British 
fleet. In October Washington said that inde- Thebiock- 
pendence was not "desired by any thinking man adeof 
in all North America," but he regarded the at- °^^°^ 
tack on Massachusetts as an outrage and said : "I will raise 
one thousand men, sub- 
sist them at my own 
expense, and march my- 
self at their head for 
the relief of Boston." 
At the .beginning of the 
blockade General Gage 
had succeeded Hutchin- 
son as governor and 
assumed personal com- 
mand of the troops at 
Boston. In October the 
delegates elected to the 
assembly, disregarding 
his proclamation counter- 
manding the call for its 
meeting, met at Salem 
at the appointed time 
and resolved themselves 
into a provincial con- 
gress with John Hancock as president. 

During January and February, 1775, American affairs 
occupied most of the time of Parliament. Chatham intro- 
duced his scheme for conciliation and Burke delivered his 
great speech. In March the restraining act was passed con- 
fining the trade of New England to Great Britain, Ireland, 




Washington as a Viiuiinia Colonel. 
From portrait by Poalo painted in 1772. 



118 



The American Revolution 



and the British West Indies. Generals William Howe, 
Clinton, and Burgoyne were sent to reenforce Gage, while 
Lord Howe, the brother of the general, was put in command 
of the naval forces in America. 

The situation around Boston was intolerable and a con- 
flict inevitable. On the night of April 18, General Gage 

sent a small 
The battle of . , 

Lexington, force under 
April 19, Colonel Smith 

to destroy the 
military magazine at 
Concord, a village eight- 
een iniles northwest of 
Boston. The secret ob- 
ject of the expedition 
leaked out, and Paul 
Revere made his famous 
ride' to give the alarm. 
When the troops reached 
Lexington about day- 
light they found sixty 
or seventy minutemen 
under Captain Parker 
drawn up near the church. 
Major Pitcairn ordered 
the provincials to lay 
down their arms; they 
refused, and the regulars 
began firing, according to the American account, though 
Major Pitcairn to the day of his death insisted that the 
Americans fired first. Eight Americans were killed and ten 
others wounded. 

The British continued their march to Concord, where they 
destroyed such stores as they could find, and started back to 
Boston. They found themselves, however, attacked on flank 




Statue of Mintjteman at Concord. 



The Attempt to Coerce Massachusetts 119 

and rear by minuteinen and farmers collected hastily from 
the surrounding country, who fired from behind trees, rocks, 
and fences. Colonel Smith's troops suffered greatly and 
would probably have been forced to surrender, had they not 
been met at Lexington by a strong force under Lord Percy, 
who had been sent to their relief. In spite of the fact that 
Percy had now 1800 men under his command, the Americans 
continued the attack until nightfall, when the British reached 




Boston and its Environs. 

Charlestown. The Americans had lost about ninety men and 
the British three times as many. 

The news of the fight at Lexington and Concord spread 
rapidly and in a short time the British army in Boston 
found itself besieged by an unorganized body of 
20,000 patriots. Volunteers from the surround- Bunker HUl, 
ing colonies soon joined them : New Hampshire J"°^ ^7, 
men under John Stark, Connecticut men under 
Israel Putnam, and Rhode Island men under Nathanael 
Greene. There was not much discipline in this mass, but 
General Artemas Ward of Massachusetts was finally given 
the chief command. On June 17 was fought the battle of 



120 The American Revolution 

Bunker Hill. As the town of Boston was commanded by 
the hilltops of Dorchester and Charlestown, General Gage 
determined as soon as the reinforcements under Howe, 
Clinton, and Burgoyne arrived to take possession of these 
points. 

The patriots, however, forestalled him by sending a force 
under Colonel Prescott to seize Bunker Hill and Charlestown 
on the evening of June 16. The next morning the British 
ships in the harbor began cannonading the Americans, but 
the latter had so far intrenched themselves as to render an 
attack by land necessary. The British regulars regarded 
the provincials with contempt and charged directly up the 
hill, but were twice repulsed. The third charge was suc- 
cessful only because the powder of the Americans gave 
out. The latter retreated to the mainland by Charlestown 
neck. 

The second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, 
May 10, 1775. In the election of delegates to this Con- 
gress the Tories took little part, so the delegates 
c ndnentai '^^^^ all men of pronounced patriotic views. 
Congress, This Congress was distinctly a revolutionary 
^^^^°' body. It was without any authority to raise an 
army or navy, to provide a revenue or to pass 
laws of any kind, but it proceeded to do all these things. 

The action of this Congress was by no means unanimous. 
John Adams tells us that "every important step was op- 
posed, and carried by bare majorities." John Dickinson of 
Pennsjdvania, a Quaker by birth, was the leader of the 
conservatives. He had stood out boldly against oppression, 
but he hesitated to approve revolutionary measures. Pey- 
ton Randolph, president of the former Congress, was chosen 
to preside over this one also, but he was soon elected speaker 
of the Virginia Assembly and returned home to direct affairs 
in that colony. John Hancock of Massachusetts succeeded 
him as president. 



The Attempt to Coerce Massachusetts 121 

On the very day that the Continental Congress met, 
Ethan Allen, of Connecticut, with a party of "Green Moun- 
tain Boys," surprised the garrison at Ticonderoga 
and called upon them to surrender "in the name xfc'onderoga 
of the great Jehovah and the Continental Con- and Crown 
gress." Benedict Arnold had started with a ^°!^f'^^^' 
party from Massachusetts on the same mission, 
but when he overtook Allen he volunteered to serve under 
him. At the same time another Vermonter, Seth Warner, 
captured Crown Point. These forts not only commanded 
the approaches from Canada to the Hudson River, but they 
contained large stores of ammunition of which the Americans 
were in great need. 

The Continental Congress, having assumed responsibility 
for the army before Boston, proceeded on June 15 to appoint 
a commander-in-chief. At the suggestion of 
John Adams, Colonel George Washington, a assumes °° 
member of Congress, was appointed to this po- command of 
sition. There were two reasons which dictated before Bos- 
this choice. In the first place, the selection of a ton, July 3, 
Virginian would help to bind the South to New ^^^^ 
England's fortunes, and, in the second place, Washington 
had acquired a military reputation which no other American 
possessed. It was well known that John Hancock coveted 
the honor, while Charles Lee and Horatio Gates, former 
British army officers who had acquired estates in Virginia, 
were both candidates for the position. The four major 
generals appointed at this time were Ward of Massachusetts, 
Charles Lee, Schuyler of New York, and Putnam of Con- 
necticut. Of the eight brigadier generals appointed at this 
time, six were from New England and two from New York. 
Gates was appointed adjutant general with the rank of 
brigadier. 

The reason for appointing so many New Englanders to 
high position was that the army before Boston was made up 



122 



The American Revolution 




:i.«-^j?Copps Hrj£_^V 

Lcnj HARBOR 
S5vtR^o^ I. 







' SCALE OF MILE-? 




of men from that section. Washington accepted his com- 
mission from the Congress in a modest but dignified speech 
in which he said that he would not accept any pay, but would 
keep an account of his expenses, for which Congress might 

reimburse him later if 
they should see fit. On 
July 3 he arrived at 
Cambridge and took 
formal command of the 
army. Congress also 
made provision for rais- 
ing troops in the other 
colonies. During the 
summer riflemen from 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, 
and Virginia joined the 
army before Boston, the 
first to arrive being a company from the valley of Virginia 
commanded by Captain Daniel Morgan. 

In November General Montgomery of New York led about 
fifteen hundred men by way of Lake Champlain against 
Canada and occupied Montreal, while Benedict 
Arnold led a force through the forests of Maine 
to join him in an attack on Quebec. The assault 
took place during a severe snowstorm, December 
31, 1775; Montgomery was killed and the main 
attack abandoned. Arnold led the other attacking column 
and was severely wounded, but Morgan, who succeeded to 
the command, fought his way into the heart of the city only 
to be captured through the failure of the main attack. This 
disastrous expedition was badly planned and not sup- 
ported by a sufficient force. 

On the night of March 4, 1776, Wasliington seized and 
fortified Dorchester Heights, rendering the position of the 
British in Boston untenable. In less than two weeks Gen- 



Unsuccess- 
ful invasion 
of Canada, 
December, 
1775 



The Attempt to Coerce Massachusetts 123 

eral Howe evacuated the city and embarked his troops for 
HaUfax. 

The ten years' discussion preceding the outbreak of hos- 
tihties had led to the formation of opposing parties of Whigs 
and Tories. The crown officers were the back- Harsh treat- 
bone of the Tory party, but there was a large ment of 
number of people in every colony who were con- °^ 
servatives by nature and remained loyal to the British 
government. It is impossible to determine the number of 
loyalists in any colony, but New York and Pennsylvania 
were ahnost evenly divided and there were many loyalists 
in Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, South 
Carolina, and Georgia. John Adams estimated that about 
one third of the population of the colonies was at first- 
opposed to the Revolution. New York aloi]e furnished 
about fifteen thousand men to the British army and navy 
who were regularly enlisted, and about eight thousand 
militia. 

The feeling between the loyalists and the patriots was 
exceedingly bitter, and many of the former were compelled 
to seek refuge in the British lines or to flee from their native 
land altogether. In the early days the Tories were left to 
the mercies of irresponsible mobs, but later on laws of a dis- 
criminatory character were directed against them. They 
were deprived of the right to vote, hold office, or serve on 
juries and, in some States, of the right to sue their debtors, 
or have recourse to law for any injury. As a final measure 
their property was confiscated and used in support of the 
Revolution. In a few cases they were tried for treason, but 
Washington and the other prominent leaders were opposed 
to this and most of those arrested were treated merely 
as prisoners of war. The number of executions was very 
small. 

The people of the several colonies were meanwhile taking 
steps to organize State and local governments. When the 



124 The American Revolution 

royal governors dissolved the assemblies, conventions were 
organized, in some eases at the call of the committees of 
o niza- correspondence, in others at the call of voluntary 
tionof meetings of private citizens. On June 9, 1775, 

Revolution- • ^gp^y iq q^ letter from the Massachusetts con- 

ary State ^ '^ 

govern- vention. Congress advised the organization of a 

ments provisional government, and in October the same 

advice was given to New Hampshire and South Carolina. 

During the summer and autumn of 1775, the southern 
colonies were drawn more deeply into the conflict through 
clashes with the royal governors. The Virginia 
Henry calls convention met for the second time March 20, 
Virginia to 1775 ; this meeting was held in St. John's Church 
in Richmond. Patrick Henry moved "that this 
colony be immediately put in a state of defense," and, in 
support of his resolution, delivered that wonderful speech 
which has caused him to be classed with the great orators of 
the ages. In concluding this speech he said: "Gentlemen 
may cry peace, peace, but there is no peace. The war is 
actually begun. The next gale that sweeps from the north 
will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms. Our 
brethren are already in the field. Why stand we here idle? 
What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? 
Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price 
of chains or slavery? Forbid it. Almighty God! 1 know 
not what course others may take ; but as for me, give me 
liberty or give me death !" 

Lord Dunmore was so much alarmed that he caused the 
powder to be removed from the old magazine at Williams- 
burg. Patrick Henry at once raised a company of Hanover 
volunteers and marched against Williamsburg to recover 
the powder. As he advanced, volunteers from all directions 
joined him and the riVimber of his troops is said by some to 
have reached five thousand. When he got within sixteen 
miles of WilUamsburg, the governor in alarm sent Carter 



The Attempt to Coerce Massachusetts 125 

Braxton with an offer to pay for the powder. To this 
Patrick Henry agreed, and having received and given a re- 
ceipt for the £330 which he demanded, disbanded his troops. 
On June 1, 1775, the Assembly met in response to a call 
issued by the governor for the purpose of considering Lord 
North's proposals ; but, instead of taking up 
these, the House began to investigate the conduct more harries 
of the governor. The governor then took refuge \^.^ coasts of 

. . . . Virginia 

with his family aboard his Majesty's ship, the 
Fowey, then lying at York. Later he proclaimed the prov- 
ince in a state of war, offered freedom to the slaves, and 
ravaged the shores of Chesapeake Bay and the rivers with 
armed vessels. 

On December 9, Lord Dunmore's force was defeated with 
considerable loss at Great Bridge on the south branch of 
the EHzabeth River about twelve miles from Norfolk. Lord 
Dunmore fell back to Norfolk, but thinking it more prudent 
to retire to his ships, he burned the city January 1, 1776. 
Colonel William Woodford of the Second Virginia Regiment 
had commanded the militia at the battle of Great Bridge, 
although Patrick Henry, who had raised and was colonel of 
the First Regiment, desired the command. As Henry had 
had no military experience the committee of safety had se- 
lected Woodford. Patrick Henry was so much chagrined 
by the action of the committee that he finally decided to 
abandon a military career. 

In North Carolina the men of Mecklenburg County met 
on May 30, 1775, and adopted resolutions providing for the 
temporary management of local affairs. These 
resolutions were published at the time, but the ^ionary ^° "' 
original records of the meeting were later de- movement 
stroyed by fire. The so-called "Mecklenburg car^^a 
Declaration of Independence," which gained cur- 
rency years afterwards, was written from memory and is 
not supported by contemporary evidence. 



126 The American Revolution 

In August, 1775, Governor Martin followed the example 
of Dunmore and took refuge on a British man-of-war. Rep- 
resenting to the British government that the people of the 
central and western counties were still loyal, he urged that 
British troops be sent to cooperate with him. A force under 
Sir Henry Clinton accordingly left Boston in December bound 
for Cape Fear. Meanwhile the loyalists had collected a 
force of sixteen hundred men and started for the coast to 
meet the British, but on February 27, 1776, they were de- 
feated by a patriot force at Moore's Creek, and nine hundred 
of them taken prisoners. 

Sir Henry Clinton hovered about Cape Fear for some 

weeks, waiting for Sir Peter Parker, who was to cooperate 

with him, but bv the time the latter arrived the 
The attack 
on Charles- patriots were SO thoroughly aroused that the 

ton, June, British abandoned their enterprise. They sailed, 
however, for Charleston, South Carolina, but 
Edward Rutledge, the head of the provisional government, 
had over six thousand militia ready to defend the city. 
On June 28, 1776, Parker's fleet bombarded the fort of 
palmetto logs which Colonel Moultrie had erected on 
Sullivan's Island, while Clinton tried to effect a landing. 
These unsuccessful attacks on the southern colonies had 
produced no other effect than to strengthen the patriot 
cause. 

On Ma}^ 15, 1776, the Virginia convention adopted a 
resolution directing its delegates in Congress to propose 
Virginia ^^^^^ ^^^ colonies declare themselves free and 
delegates independent States. On June 7 Richard Henry 
to^ropote ^^^ made the motion in Congress "that these 
independ- united colonies are, and of right ought to be, 
free and independent States, that they are ab- 
solved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all 
political connection between them and the state of Great 
Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." John Adams 



The Attempt to Coerce Massachusetts 127 



The Dec- 
laration of 
Independ- 
ence, July 4, 
1776 



seconded the resohition, but it was violently opposed by 
Dickinson and Wilson of Pennsylvania. Moreover, several 
of the States had not authorized their delegates to act on 
this question. For the sake of harmony, therefore, a vote on 
the resolution was postponed for three weeks; but a com- 
mittee consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Ben- 
jamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston 

was appointed to pre- 
pare a declaration. This 
committee reported on 
the twenty-eighth. 

On July 2 Richard 
Henry Lee's resolution 
was adopted, 
and on July 4, 
the Declara- 
tion of Inde- 
pendence was 
agreed to. The docu- 
ment was drafted by Jef- 
ferson and only slightly 
modified by the com- 
mittee. New York's 
delegates were excused 
from voting on the dec- 
laration as they had not 
received the necessary instructions. In fact the attitude of 
that province had been in great doubt. Some of the most 
influential families were Tories and the colony was exposed 
to attack both from Canada and from the sea. In March 
the Continental Congress had ordered that all disaffected 
persons be disarmed. This greatly strengthened the Whigs 
and produced such a reaction in the New York provincial con- 
gress, that on July 9 that body adopted the Declaration of 
Independence. 




Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Inst 
surviving signer of the Declaration of 
Independence. 



Ii28 The American Revolution 



TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. Committees of Correspondence : Channing, History of the 
United States, Vol. Ill, pp. 125-128; Fiske, American Revolution, 
Vol. I, pp. 78-81 ; Henry, Patrick Henrij, Vol. I, Chap. VII ; J. 
M. Le'ake, The Virginia Committee System and the American Revo- 
lution (J. H. U. Studies, Series XXXV, No. 1). 

2. The Coercive Acts of 1774: Channing, Vol. Ill, Chap. V; 
Howard, Preliminaries of the Revolution, Chap. XV; Fiske, Vol. 
I, pp. 82-99. 

3. The First Continental Congress : Howard, Chap. XVI ; 
Fiske, Vol. I, pp. 100-116. 

4. Battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill : Channing, Vol. Ill, 
Chap. VI ; C. H. Van Tyne, The American Revolution, Chap. II ; 
Fiske, Vol. I, pp. 117-146. 

5. Unsuccessful Invasion of Canada : Channing, Vol. Ill, 
pp. 241-245 ; Fiske, Vol. I, pp. 165-168 ; Justin H. Smith, Arnold's 
March from Cambridge to Q%iebec; J. Graham, Life of General Daniel 
Morgan, Chaps. IV, V. 

6. The Loyalists: Van Tyne, pp. 91-94, 152-156, 250-268; 
H. J. Eekenrode, The Revolution in Virginia, Chap. IX. 

7. Organization of State Governments : Van Tyne, Chaps. IX, 
XI ; Channing, Vol. Ill, Chap. IV ; Eekenrode, Chap. VI. 

8. The Declaration of Independence : Van Tyne, Chap. V ; 
Channing, Vol. Ill, Chap. VII ; Fiske, Vol. I, pp. 180-197. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE ATTACK ON THE CENTER 

Three weeks after the British evacuation of Boston 
"Washington left Cambridge for New York, where he ar- 
rived April 13, 1776. The strength of the Tories 
in the city caused him no little alarm and he cor- ^arshrfted" 
rectly concluded that this would be the next point to the 
of British attack. Having failed in the attempt j^^^°^' 
to coerce New England, the British ministry now 
had two courses open to them : one was to carry on a naval 
war entirely, blockade the coast, cut off all trade and inter- 
course with the outside world, and thus bring the colonies 
to terms; the other, which was the one adopted, was to 
conquer the country by military force. The leading mili- 
tary men in England objected to this plan from the first 
and considered it hopeless, but the ministry persisted in 
their determination to whip the colonies into obedience. 
The plan of campaign was to occupy New York City and the 
line of the Hudson River and thus cut New England off 
from the support of the middle and southern colonies. 

The effort of the ministry to recruit an army in England 
did not meet with much enthusiasm and it was soon evident 
that foreign troops would have to be hired. Hessian 
These were finally procured from half a dozen troops sent 
petty German princes who were in the habit of ° ™enca 
hiring out their subjects to pay their debts. Nearly 30,000 
soldiers were procured from this source, 12,000 of them being 
furnished by the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel. Hence the 
German troops were usually spoken of in America as Hes- 

"l29 



130 The American Revolution 

sians. Over a third of them never returned to their native 
land. Some were killed, but most of those who were cap- 
tured settled down quietly after the war and became Amer- 
ican citizens. 

General Howe embarked his troops at Halifax June 7, 
and arrived off Sandy Hook three weeks later. His brother, 
Plan of Lord Howe, arrived from England a few days 

campaign later in command of a naval force, and with terms 
of conciliation which he was to offer the Americans. As 
his flagship approached the American coast he heard the 
fire of guns celebrating the adoption by Congress of the 
Declaration of Independence. He sent a letter to "George 
Washington, Esq." which the latter refused to receive 
because his proper title was not recognized. A few weeks 
later he had a conference with three commissioners ap- 
pointed by Congress, John Adams, Rutledge, and Franklin, 
but negotiations looking to peace were now utterly futile. 

In August operations against New York City were begun. 
The plan was for General Howe to seize New York and get 
control of the lower Hudson, while General Carleton was to 
come down from Canada, recapture Ticonderoga, and seize 
the line of the upper Hudson. General Howe had with 
him about 25,000 British and Hessian soldiers, while Wash- 
ington had only 18,000 badly organized and poorly equipped 
men. Howe also had a strong naval force to assist him, 
while Washington had no means of controlling the waters 
about the city. The American forces were distributed in 
New York, on Long Island, and in the forts along the 
Hudson. General Putnam, with 9000 men, was intrenched 
on Brooklyn Heights, and as this point commanded New 
York City, it was selected as the first point of attack by the 
British. 

In the battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776, the Brit- 
ish advanced in three columns. One column attacked the 
American right commanded by William Alexander of New 



The Attack on the Center 131 

Jersey, commonly known as Lord Stirling ; another column 
attacked the American left commanded by General Sulli- 
van ; while about half the army commanded by 
General Howe in person, and accompanied by Long island, 
Clinton, Percy, and Cornwallis, made a long August 27, 
circuit around the American left by way of the 
Jamaica Road and assaulted Sullivan on the flank and rear. 

After the rout of Sullivan, Stirling had a desperate fight 
to prevent his whole command from being captured. He 
himself was taken prisoner, but his command succeeded in 
fighting its way back to the works held by Putnam. In 
this struggle Smallwood's Maryland brigade did valiant 
service and won the honors of the day. After the battle 
Washington reenforced the garrison at Brooklyn Heights, 
expecting that it would be stormed by Howe; but as the 
latter seemed to be settling down to a regular siege, and as 
there was great danger that the British ships might at any 
time come up into East River and cut off his retreat, he 
decided to withdraw. On August 29, under Washington's 
personal direction the retreat to New York was successfully 
accomplished. 

With the British army holding Brooklyn Heights and the 
navy in both rivers. New York could not long be held by 
the Americans. In fact certain military critics uewYork 
have censured Washington severely for making Cityoc- 
any attempt to hold either Brooklyn or New theBritish 
York, but they overlook the fact that he was September 
conducting a political as well as a military cam- ^^' ^^'^ 
paign, and that he could not afford to give up New York 
without a fight. On September 15 Howe crossed over 
from Brooklyn, landing at Kip's Bay, and threw a line 
across Manhattan Island about where Thirty-fourth Street 
now runs. Washington had already withdrawn most of 
his troops to Harlem Heights, but Putnam, who had been 
left in New York with 4000 men, barely had time to escape. 



132 The American Revolution 

On the sixteenth, the British attacked the American Hnes at 
Harlem Heights, but the attack was repulsed with the loss 
of 60 Americans and 300 British, 

On the twelfth of October, General Howe took the greater 
part of his army up East River nine miles to Throg's Neck, 
intending to get in Washington's rear. But Washington 
quickly concentrated his whole army at White Plains, 
abandoning everything on Manhattan Island except Fort 
Washington. Howe was thus completely baffled, but on 
October 28 he stormed an outpost with the loss of 229 men, 
while the Americans lost only 140. This affair is sometimes 
spoken of as the battle of White Plains. Three days later 
Washington retired to North Castle, where he took up such 
a strong position that Howe gave up all idea of attacking 
him. The British occupation of New York continued until 
the close of the war in 1783. The Tories at last had a place 
of refuge and they came hither in large numbers not only 
from New York but from the other colonies. 

Carleton, who was to advance from Canada, had not met 
with much success. After the defeat of the Americans at 
Quebec, Arnold had conducted the retreat, con- 
advance testing every step of the way. In order to 
checked by prevent Carleton from gaining control of Lake 
Champlain, he cut the timber from the forest, 
constructed a fleet of sixteen vessels, and took his stand at 
Valcour's Island. When Carleton forced him from his posi- 
tion after several hours of desperate fighting on October 
11, Arnold retired to Crown Point, where he was overtaken 
before landing and another fight occurred. He managed 
to land his men, however, and marched through the woods 
to Ticonderoga. When Carleton arrived before that for- 
tress, he thought that it was too strong to be taken and, as 
the season was growing late, he retired to Canada, greatly 
to the surprise of both friend and foe. 

When Washington withdrew from Harlem Heights he 



The Attack on the Center 133 

left, as we have ah-eady seen, a garrison at Fort Washington. 
There was also a garrison in Fort Lee, directly across the 
river in New Jersey. The disposition of his 
other forces was as follows : General Charles Lee fort Wash- 
was in command at North Castle, with 7000 men ; by the 
General Putnam was sent over to the Jersey side British, 
with 5000 men and stationed at Hackensack ; 1775 
while General Heath was stationed with 3000 
at Peekskill with instructions to strongly fortify West Point. 

The British navy now succeeded in passing Forts Wash- 
ington and Lee, and there was no longer any use in attempt- 
ing to hold them. Washington left instructions with Greene 
to abandon them when it should be deemed advisable, and 
went up the river to superintend the fortifications at West 
Point. Greene, however, received instructions from Con- 
gress not' to abandon Ji'ort Washington except under the 
direst necessity. He therefore strengthened the garrison. 
On November 16 Howe took the fort by storm, captur- 
ing 3000 of the best troops in the American army. Wash- 
ington had returned to Fort Lee and was an eyewitness of 
the engagement. He immediately ordered General Lee to 
bring his troops over to the Jersey side, but Lee ignored the 
order and when Howe crossed the Hudson, Greene had to 
evacuate Fort Lee. 

Washington now retired to Newark, urging Lee to fol- 
low with all haste. Lee's conduct at this time was out- 
rageous, but there were many men in Congress 
who considered him a great military genius, and ret^ires" ° 
Washington had to put up with him. Lee delib- across the 
erately held aloof, hoping that the retreat would Dec^^^^yye 
discredit Washington and that he would be ap- 
pointed to succeed him. Meanwhile, through the expira- 
tions of enlistments and through desertions, Washington's 
army was dwindling away, and when he crossed the Delaware 
near Trenton on December 8, he had left only 3000 men. 



134 



The American Revolution 



Lee finally crossed the Hudson with the idea of making a 
successful attack on Howe and winning the honors of the 
campaign, but fortunately for the American cause he was 
captured by a party of British dragoons at his headquarters 
near Morristown, December 13. 

The British cause seemed 
triumphant at last, and Howe 

The British ^^'^^ regarded as a 
occupy New modern Csesar who 
•'^^^^^ came and saw and 

conquered. Lord Percy was 




sent to seize Newport, Rhode Island, and that important 
seaport remained in the hands of the British until 1779. 
The British army now controlled the entire state of New 
Jersey, and Lord Howe issued broadsides to the people 
inviting them to take the oath of allegiance. Nearly 3000 
accepted the invitation in New Jersey alone. The Tory 
sentiment was rampant in Philadelphia also and the mem- 



The Attack on the Center 135 

bers of Congress fled in a panic to Baltimore. "These are 
the times that try men's souls," wrote Tom Paine in "The 
Crisis," the first of the series of pamphlets which he issued 
in support of the patriot cause. "The Crisis" came from 
the press December 19, when things were at the lowest ebb. 
It was widely read by the soldiers and reinspired them with 
enthusiasm for the cause. 

The first year of the war was fought mainly in New Eng- 
land by New England militia, who were enlisted to serve 
until December, 1775, when twenty-six new regi- Washington 
ments were raised to serve for one year. When appeals for 
the seat of the war was transferred to the Hud- ^^°°p^ 
son, many of the New England troops accompanied Wash- 
ington and served during a part of the campaign, but very 
few of them would consent to reenlist when their terms 
expired. Washington was reduced to great straits, and ap- 
pealed to Congress and the States for troops to take their 
place. With the time for the departure of the New England 
troops only one week off, Washington sent this appeal to 
the president of Congress, December 24, 1776: "By the 
departure of these regiments, I shall be left with five from 
Virginia, Smallwood's from Maryland, a small part of Raw- 
lin's (Maryland and Virginia Rifles), Hand's from Pennsyl- 
vania, part of Ward's from Connecticut, and a German 
battalion, amounting in the whole at this time from four- 
teen to fifteen hundred effective men." During the next 
two years the Virginia Continentals formed the backbone 
of Washington's army. In the battles of Trenton, Prince- 
ton, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth, Virginia 
troops bore the brunt of the fighting. 

Unless some bold stroke could be made at once Washing- 
ton saw that the cause was hopeless. On Christmas night 
he crossed the Delaware amid floating ice, in a blinding 
storm, with about 2500 men, and in the early morning 
of the 26th fell upon the British center at Trenton held by a 



136 The American Revolution 

body of Hessians under Colonel Rahl. They were com- 
pletely surprised and driven pell-mell through the streets. 

Their commanding officer was killed and over 
of Trenton, 1000 were taken prisoners. Washington im- 
Dec. 26, mediately recrossed the Delaware into Pennsyl- 

vania. ihe army was so much encouraged by 
the success of this bold stroke that many of those whose 
time was about to expire agreed to reenlist for six weeks. 
A large force of Pennsylvania militia also joined him, and, 
on December 29, he again crossed the Delaware and occupied 
Trenton. 

Cornwallis was immediately sent from New York to take 
charge of operations in New Jersey. On January 2, 1777, 

he advanced from Princeton upon Trenton with 

Cornwallis , . i -i 1 i • 1 

attempts to 8000 men. Washington meanwhile had with- 
capture drawn his force across the Assunpink, a small 

river which flows into the Delaware just south 
of Trenton. Cornwallis ordered 2000 men to advance 
from Princeton the next morning. His plan was to force 
the passage of the Assunpink above the American position 
and force Washington back against the Delaware. As he 
retired for the night in high spirits CornwaUis said: "At 
last we have run down the old fox and we will bag him in the 
morning." 

But Washington was not lacking in either boldness or 
audacity and he formed a plan which took CornwaUis corn- 
Battle of pletely by surprise. He knew that Cornwallis 
Princeton, had left detachments at Princeton and at New 
Jan. 3, 1777 Bj-ynswick to guard the stores. He determined 
to overwhelm one or both of these and thus compel Corn- 
waUis to retire toward New York. The Americans kept 
their camp fires burning brightly aU night and small parties 
were kept busy with pick and spade throwing up intrench- 
ments so as to deceive the British. Meanwhile the Ameri- 
can army marched up the stream, crossed, and passing 



The Attack on the Center 137 

around Cornwallis's left wing, took the road for Princeton. 
As they approached the town, about sunrise, they met the 
British detachment starting out for Trenton. The Ameri- 
cans attacked with vigor and a sharp fight ensued. Gen- 
eral Hugh Mercer who, with his Virginia brigade, had led 
the attack was mortally wounded by the bayonets of the 
enemy, and his men began to fall back. Washington, how- 
ever, galloped up in time to rally the troops and in less than 
twenty minutes from the time the fight began the British 
were completely routed. 

When Cornwallis arose in the morning he was amazed 
to see the American camp deserted and perplexed to know 
what had become of Washington, but the boom- New Jersey 
ing of the guns in his rear soon enlightened him. reclaimed 
He decided at once to retire to New Brunswick. Wash- 
ington was several hours ahead of him on the same road 
and took care that all bridges were destroyed so as to delay 
the progress of Cornwallis. As Washington could not risk 
a general engagement he decided not to go by New Bruns- 
wick for the purpose of seizing the stores, but marched 
straight northward to the heights of Morristown. Corn- 
wallis retired to New Brunswick and eventually to New 
York. By these brilhant maneuvers practically the whole 
of New Jersey had been reclaimed and the British had lost 
the entire fruits of their summer campaign. Washington 
went into winter quarters at Morristown. 

The campaign of 1777 opened with the British holding 
New York, while Washington had his main force at Morris- 
town. The British ministry, counting on the g^tish plan 
aid of the New York Tories, had determined to of cam- 
make another attempt to occupy the line of the ^anc" of 
Hudson. Three concerted movements were Burgoyne, 
planned. General Burgoyne was to lead an ^'^'^'^ 
army from Canada against Ticonderoga and, after the cap- 
ture of this fort, to advance down the Hudson to Albany. 



138 The American Revolution 

Colonel St. Leger was to take a smaller force up the St. 
Lawrence to Oswego on Lake Ontario and then attack 
Fort Stanwix with the aid of Tories and Indians, and finally 
march down the Mohawk to meet Burgoyne at Albany. 
General Howe was to advance from New York up the 
Hudson to Albany. 

Burgoyne advanced from Canada with an army of 8000 
men and on July 1 appeared before Fort Ticonderoga, which 
was garrisoned with 3000 men under General St. Clair. 
Less than a mile south of Ticonderoga a crag known as Mt. 
Defiance juts out into the lake. St. Clair had failed to for- 
tify this point, which the British now seized and mounted 
with cannon. Ticonderoga was no longer tenable and St. 
Clair withdrew during the night to Fort Edward, where the 
main division was stationed under command of General 
Schuyler. 

As Burgoyne approached Fort Edward the latter part 
of July, Schuyler evacuated that post, crossed to the west 
Battle of ^^^® ^^ ^^® Hudson, and retired down the river 
Bennington, to Stillwater. Burgoyne's advance was beset 
ugustis, ^-^j^ many difficulties. The Americans removed 
all cattle and supplies out of the way, and, as his sup- 
plies were failing, he undertook to seize the American 
stores at Bennington. To accomplish this task Colonel 
Baum was sent out with a strong detachment of Germans, 
Indians, and loyaUsts; but on August 15 he was met by 
a force of New England volunteers under the command of 
John Stark. A heavy rain delayed the attack that day, 
but on the 16th the British were attacked and compelled 
to surrender. A reenforcement of 500 Germans came very 
near turning the tide in favor of the British, but Colonel 
Seth Warner arrived with his regiment in time to save the 
day. The battle of Bennington proved a disaster to Bur- 
goyne, for it raised the spirits of the New Englanders and 
many new recruits now joined Schuyler. 



The Attack on the Center 139 

Meanwhile the second invading column led by St. Leger 
had fared still worse. He landed at Oswego about the 
middle of July and arrived before Fort Stanwix 
August 3, his forces having been increased by driven^back 
bands of Tories and a party of Iroquois Indians to Canada, 
under Joseph Brant, the great Mohawk chief, ^^y^^^' 
General Herkimer, with a party of German settlers 
in the neighborhood, advanced to the relief of the garrison, 
sending ahead messengers to the commanding officer. Colonel 
Gansevoort, arranging for a concerted attack on St. Leger. 

While advancing through a narrow ravine near Oriskany, 
August 6, the Americans were ambushed by a party of Tories 
and Mohawks, but after a desperate hand to hand fight in 
which Herkimer received a wound that proved fatal, he 
succeeded with the help of a relief party from the fort in 
beating off his assailants. St. Leger continued the siege 
of Fort Stanwix, but Benedict Arnold was now advancing 
up the Mohawk with a force of 1200 men, and as he ap- 
proached St. Leger's motley array of troops became panic- 
stricken and abandoned the siege August 22. St. Leger, 
with what troops he could hold together, retreated to Oswego, 
and from that point returned to Montreal. 

From Fort Stanwix Arnold hastened back to rejoin 
Schuyler whose army had been reenforced by New England 
militia and by 500 picked riflemen under Colonel Burgoyne's 
Daniel Morgan whom Washington had detached position 
from the southern army. Burgoyne's force, "* ^'^ 
which amounted to only 5000, was greatly outnumbered by 
the Americans, and he was greatly discouraged by the failure 
of St. Leger to execute his part of the plan. Still, St. Leger's 
cooperation was not absolutely essential to the main cam- 
paign, the object of which was to occupy the line of the 
Hudson. Had General Howe successfully carried out his 
part of the plan and now advanced up the Hudson to meet 
Burgoyne, the British might yet have been successful. 



140 The American Revolution 

But at the critical moment General Howe was engaged 
in carrying out a design of his own. As Washington was 
Howe's preparing to oppose his advance up the Hudson 

movement ^t Peekskill, Howe thought that the situation 
Phiia- was favorable for an attack on Philadelphia. He 

deiphia, therefore decided to seize the American capital 
September, before moving north to cooperate with Burgoyne. 
1777 This plan was strongly indorsed by General 

Charles Lee, who was still nominally a prisoner in New 
York, but who in reality had turned traitor to the American 
cause in order to save his own head. 

As soon as Washington learned of this proposed move- 
ment, he moved his army from Morristown down to Middle- 
brook, expecting Howe to go by land. In view of this move 
Howe was tempted to change his plan in the hope of bring- 
ing on a general engagement with Washington. After 
maneuvering unsuccessfully for three weeks, he finally 
put his troops aboard the transports early in July, but was 
further delayed by waiting to get news from Burgoyne and 
then by bad weather, so that his fleet did not get under way 
until July 23. 

Howe had intended to disembark his troops on the Dela- 
ware, but the naval officers were for some reason opposed 
to this and urged him to sail up the Chesapeake and land at 
Elkton, Maryland. Nearly another month was wasted 
in this movement and Washington was greatly puzzled for 
a while, but when he finally learned that Howe was advanc- 
ing up the Chesapeake, he moved southward to meet him 
and wrote letters urging the New Englanders to turn out 
and crush Burgoyne. 

When Howe landed at Elkton, Washington 
Brandywine, determined to make a stand on the Brandywine, 
September which ran directly across Howe's line of march 

II 1777 

to Philadelphia. Washington placed his center 
behind Chadd's Ford. The passage of the stream was 



The Attack on the Center 



141 



covered by a corps of artillerj^ under Wayne, while Greene's 
division was stationed on high ground in the rear as a 
reserve. The steep cUffs below Chadd's Ford were guarded 
by Pennsylvania militia. Washington's right wing, extend- 




The Middle Atlantic States. 

ing two miles up the river and covering several fording 
places, was commanded by Sullivan. 

On the morning of September 11, the right wing of the 
British army commanded by Knyphausen attacked the 
American center at Chadd's Ford, while the left wing under 



142 The American Revolution 

command of Cornwallis marched up the Lancaster road, 
crossed the Brandywine some distance above the extension 
of SuUivan's Unes, and marched around with the intention of 
taking him in the rear. CornwalHs had marched eighteen 
miles and was well in SuUivan's rear before his movement 
was fully understood by Washington. The latter at once 
ordered SulHvan to change front, but the movement was 
badly executed and his division was gradually forced back. 
Cornwallis was rapidly forcing his way between the de- 
feated division of Sullivan and the American center at 
Chadd's Ford, when Washington, reaUzing the danger, 
hastened to the rescue with Greene's division. With the 
center thus weakened, Knyphausen began his advance 
across Chadd's Ford and, after obstinate resistance, Wayne 
retired before him and the entire American army retreated 
to Chester. 

This battle was admirably fought on both sides, and the 
American defeat was by no means the rout that has been 
sometimes described. Washington's troops maintained their 
organization and were strong enough to delay Howe's en- 
trance into Philadelphia for two weeks. 

The British army entered Philadelphia, September 25, 
the greater part of it going into camp at Germantown. 
Here they were attacked by Washington, Octo- 
Gelman- ^^^ ^' ^'^^'^ ' ^^^ attack was Well planned, and 
town, the British were retiring before Sullivan's ad- 

jT*" vancing column, when an unfortunate accident 

occurred. The battle was fought in a dense fog, 
and, as General Stephen's division came into action, they 
mistook Wayne's men for the British and fired into their 
rear. Wayne's men were thrown into confusion on the 
left flank of SuUivan's division, and the panic spread through 
the whole army when victory was reaUy within its grasp. 
Discipline was soon restored and the Americans withdrew in 
good order. 



The Attack on the Center 143 

Adam Stephen, the only Virginian who was honored with 
the rank of major general during the war, with the excep- 
tion of Gates and Charles Lee, who had acquired estates in 
Virginia, had seen vaUant service in the Indian wars and 
was undoubtedly a soldier of abiHty. As a result of his 
error at the battle of Germantown, he was court-martialed 
and dismissed from the service on the charge of drunkenness. 

General Schuyler, who was in command of the northern 
army, was not popular with the New Englanders, mainly 
because he had espoused New York's claims to 
Vermont. His enemies in Congress finally sue- of'^ree-" ^ 
ceeded in securing his removal and on August 4 mans Farm, 
General Gates was appointed to succeed him. ^^f**' ^^' 
General Burgoyne was now greatly harassed by 
the Green Mountain militia, and, since there was little 
chance of Howe's carrying out his part of the plan, he should 
undoubtedly have retired to Fort Edward where he could 
have kept open his communications with Canada. 

But the orders of the British ministry, three thousand 
miles away, were to advance to Albany and he felt that he had 
no cUscretion in the matter. On September 13 he crossed to 
the west bank of the Hudson and retreat was now impos- 
sible. The American army meanwhile took a strong posi- 
tion on Bemis Heights. On September 19, Burgoyne 
prepared to assail this position. With Dearborn's infantry 
and Morgan's riflemen Arnold advanced to Freeman's 
Farm, anticipating the British attack and checking their 
advance. He had with him only 3000 men, while Gates 
remained intrenched on Bemis Heights with 11,000. Had 
Arnold been reenforced at the right moment, he could have 
won a briUiant victory. Although defeated he completely 
disconcerted the British plans and delayed further attack 
for eighteen days. 

On October 7 occurred the second battle at Freeman's 
Farm. Burgoyne again began the movement by advancing 



144 The American Revolution 

against the American left. As the British moved forward, 
Morgan with his riflemen attacked their right flank, while a 

strong force assailed them in front. The whole 
battle of ^^^^ ^^^ broken and the British undertook to 
Freeman's form on another Hne farther back. Arnold was 
^*i^' *^*' quick to seize the opportunity and fell upon them 

before they could form their line. As the British 
gave way Gates sent forward the rest of his troops, his 
whole army now numbering 20,000, and the British were 
overwhelmed. 

Burgoyne retreated up the river to Saratoga, and on 
October 17 surrendered his entire force. By the terms of 

the "Convention" of Saratoga, as the surrender 
of^Burgoyne ^^^ called, it was agreed that the British should 
at Saratoga, march out of camp with the honors of war, stack 
jji_^^' their arms, march to Boston under a guard and 

there take ship for England under promise not to 
serve again during the American war. The terms of the 
convention were not favorably received by Congress and 
aroused much discussion. While the agreement was not 
expressly repudiated, its fulfillment met with so much ob- 
jection and delay that the British troops were never per- 
mitted to return to England. They were kept in camps 
at various points as prisoners of war until the close of 
the Revolution, when most of them made America their 
permanent home. 

TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. Hessian Troops in the Revolution : Channing, History of the 
United States, Vol. Ill, pp. 211-215; Van Tyne, American Revo- 
lution, pp. 97-101 ; Fiske, American Revolution, Vol. I, pp. 161, 
162 ; E. J. Lowell, The Hessians in the Revolution. 

2. The Fight for New York : Fiske, Vol. I, pp. 198-227 ; Van 
Tyne, Chap. VII ; Channing, Vol. Ill, Chap. VIII ; F. V. Greene, 
Revolutionary War, pp. 28-60. 

3. The Battles of Trenton and Princeton : Fiske, Vol. I, pp. 



The Attack on the Center 145 

228-238; Greene, pp. 62-72; W. S. Stryker, Battles of Trenton 
and Princeton. 

4. The British Attempt to seize the line of the Hudson : Fiske, 
Vol. I, Chap. VI; Greene, pp. 75-82, 96-108; Channing, Vol. 
Ill, pp. 256-266; H. B. Carrington, Battles of the American Revo- 
lution, pp. 303-334. 

5. Brandywine and Germantown : Fiske, Vol. I, pp. 312-324; 
Greene, pp. 80-95; Carrington, pp. 362-391. 

6. Saratoga: Fiske, Vol. I, Chap. VII; Greene, pp. 109-131; 
Carrington, pp. 335-354; Channing, Vol. Ill, pp. 266-273; W. 
L. Stone, Campaign of Burgoyne. 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE FRENCH ALLIANCE 

In the fall of 1775 the Continental Congress had ap- 
pointed a "Secret Committee on Foreign Correspondence," 
Beginnings ^^^ ^^^ months later Silas Deane, a member of 
of American Congress from Connecticut, was sent to France 
ip omacy ^^ ^j^^ ^^^^ American diplomatic agent. Although 
he went under the name of Jones and the disguise of a 
West Indian merchant, British spies discovered his identity 
almost as soon as he arrived at Paris, and the British min- 
ister demanded his expulsion from France. Deane was 
soon granted a private interview by Louis XVI's foreign 
minister, the Comte de Vergennes, but most of his nego- 
tiations with the French government were carried on through 
Beaumarchais, an interesting adventurer who had great 
influence at court and who is known in literature as the 
author of Le Barbier de Seville and Le Manage de Figaro. 
In October, 1776, Deane procured through Beaumarchais 
clothing for 20,000 men, 30,000 muskets, and large quantities 
of powder, shot, and cannon. Shipments to America were 
made by Beaumarchais tlirough the agency of a new mer- 
cantile house with the fictitious name of "Hortalez et Cie." 

In March, 1777, the Marquis de Lafayette sailed for 

America to aid the patriot cause. The French government 

, , was interested in the Revolution mainly through 

Lafayette 

and other hostility to England, but Lafayette and many 

foreign other Frenchmen who volunteered their serv- 

officers 

ices at this time were moved by their admira- 
tion of the political ideals of the Americans, who seemed 
to be bringing to pass and putting into practice the philo- 

146 



The French AUiance 



147 



sophical conceptions of Rousseau, Voltaire, and other French 
writers of the eighteenth century. 

The number of Frenchmen who volunteered their serv- 
ices to the American cause was a serious embarrassment 
to the Continental Congress and to Washington, since it 
was impossible to give many of them commissions. The 
young Marquis de Lafayette, however, was a man of such 
prominent connections that, in view of our dependence on 
French aid, it was con- 
sidered wise to give him a 
high commission, and he 
was appointed major gen- 
eral. For several months 
he was without a com- 
mand and attached him- 
self to Washington's head- 
quarters. He took part in 
the battle of Brandywine, 
where he was wounded, 
and when Stephen was 
dismissed from the service 
Lafayette was given his 
division. Among other dis- 
tinguished foreigners who 
were granted commissions 
were Baron de Kalb, a German who had assumed the title 
of baron in order to secure a commission in the French 
army, Kosciuszko and Pulaski, both Poles, and Baron von 
Steuben, one of Frederick the Great's veterans. 

In September, 1776, Franklin and Jefferson were ap- 
pointed commissioners to cooperate with Deane 

.1 ... » --, Benjamin 

m secunng the open recognition of France. Franklin at 
Jefferson decHned this mission and Arthur Lee, the French 
who was then in London, was appointed in his 
place. Frankli^'s arrival in Paris marks an epoch in the 




Benjamin Franklin. 



148 The American Revolution 

history of the Revolution. His name was already familiar 
to all classes of the people as a philosopher and an apostle 
of liberty. As the agent of Pennsylvania and Massachu- 
setts in London during the years preceding the Revolution, 
he had acquired an invaluable experience in the methods 
of European diplomacy. The ability with which he served 
his country until the conclusion of the treaty of peace justly 
entitles him to rank, even to the present day, as America's 
greatest diplomat. His venerable appearance, simple dress, 
wit, and ease of manner created enthusiasm wherever he 
went. Numbers of busts and portraits of him were made 
and his features were reproduced on watches, rings, and snuff- 
boxes. The French people, already sympathetically in- 
clined, were completely won over to the American cause, 
and Vergennes was in favor of giving direct aid, but the 
king delayed mainly for the purpose of getting Spain to 
join the aUiance with America. 

When the news of Burgoyne's surrender reached France, 
there was great rejoicing, and Vergennes soon informed 
the American commissioners that the treaties 
aUiancewith which had already been under discussion would 
France, Feb. be signed. On February 6, 1778, two treaties 
were signed by Vergennes and the American 
commissioners. One was a general commercial treaty. 
The other was a treaty of alliance, the first and only treaty 
of alliance ever signed by the United States. France agreed 
to send troops to America to aid the cause of independence, 
the possessions of France in the West Indies were guaranteed, 
and it was agreed that neither party would make peace with 
England without the consent of the other. 

The news of the French aUiance, coming after the defeat 

Crisis in ^^ Burgoyne, precipitated a crisis in the British 

the British ministry. On February 17, before learning of 

* *°^* the alHance, Lord North had risen in the House 

of Commons and, to the amazement of everybody, proposed 



The French Alliance 149 

a measure which conceded practically everything for which 
the Americans had contended and provided for the appoint- 
ment of commissioners with full powers to treat with the 
colonies. On March 13, two days after the adoption of 
these measures, the British government learned of the 
French treaty and immediately declared war on France. 

Lord North now urged the king to call upon Chatham to 
form a new ministry, but the king flew into a rage and 
declared that no power in heaven or earth should ever make 
him stoop to treat with "Lord Chatham and his crew." 
The king would in all probability have been forced to yield, 
had not the tragic death of Chatham, who was stricken as 
he rose to speak on the floor of the House of Lords, removed 
the necessity. As there was no one else who could take his 
place, the king insisted that Lord North should continue 
at the head of the ministry. 

The winter of 1777-1778 was one of the darkest periods in 
the history of the war. Washington's army lay encamped 
at Valley Forge, where the troops suffered untold 
hardships and privations. The time was em- ton-sarmy 
ployed by Baron von Steuben in reorganizing and at Valley 
drilling the army and from this time forth its i»!|^'''^^^~ 
movements showed the benefit of superior dis- 
cipline and staff organization. Howe's army spent the 
winter in Philadelphia. In the spring he resigned and was 
succeeded by Sir Henry Clinton. On the 18th of June the 
British evacuated Philadelphia. Its capture had proved of 
little or no benefit to them, as Congress had packed up its 
belongings in a few wagons and moved to another point. 
From a strategical point of view Philadelphia was useless, 
and, as a French fleet under Count d'Estaing was approach- 
ing the American coast, Sir Henry CHnton decided to return 
to New York. He had intended to transport his army by 
water, but as there was not room on the transports for 
both the army and the thousands of Tories who had flocked 



150 The American Revolution 

to Philadelphia, he sent 3000 Tories with their personal 

effects aboard the fleet, while the army with twelve miles of 

baggage wagons marched across New Jersey. 

Washington was quick to seize the opportunity to inflict 

a sudden blow on the retreating army. He had under his 

command about 15,000 men, which was about 
Battle of 1 c r-ii- ) mi 

Monmouth the strength oi Ohnton s army. The attack 

June 28, was made at Monmouth June 28, 1778, but un- 
1778 

fortunately Charles Lee had recently been ex- 
changed and restored to his rank in the American army. 
His treasonable conduct in this battle completely thwarted 
Washington's well-planned attack, and, had not the latter 
come forward at- the critical moment, the American army 
would have suffered severely. As it was, Monmouth was a 
drawn battle. Clinton continued his march to New York. 
Lee was placed under arrest by Washington and later court- 
martialed and suspended from his command. 

From Monmouth Washington advanced north, crossed 
the Hudson, and on July 20 stationed his army at White 

Plains. The positions of the two armies were 
Clinton shut ' now the Same as in the autumn of 1776, but the 
up in New Americans were now the aggressors and Clinton 

was acting on the defensive. During July the 
French fleet under Count d'Estaing arrived off Sandy Hook 
and held a conference with two of Washington's aides. 
As there were only six British ships in the harbor, it was 
planned for D'Estaing to advance and capture them, but on 
his pilot's reporting that his two largest ships could not 
cross the bar which then lay at the mouth of the river, this 
enterprise was abandoned. 

With Washington's approval D'Estaing now undertook 
to capture Newport with the cooperation of the New England 
militia. This important post, which the British had occupied 
since December, 1776, had been a thorn in the side of New 
England, and the miUtia now turned out in large numbers. 



The French Alliance 151 

Newport was garrisoned with 6000 men. It seemed, there- 
fore, a comparatively easy matter for D'Estaing's fleet with 
4000 French regulars and Sullivan's army of New 
England militia, reenforced by 1500 regulars from (ake^New- 
Washington's army under Greene and Lafayette, port from 
9000 Americans in all, to capture it. Sullivan oc- j-tg" '^ ' 
cTipied Butt's Hill at the northern extremity of 
the island and everything was progressing satisfactorily 
when Lord Howe arrived with his fleet. D'Estaing reem- 
barked his troops and put out to sea. Two days later while 
the hostile fleets were still maneuvering, a terrific storm 
came up which so damaged the French ships that D'Estaing 
decided to go to Boston for repairs, and the New England 
militia dispersed, greatly to their chagrin. 

Monmouth was the last important battle fought in the 
north. Sir Henry Clinton was hemmed in at New York 
by Washington's army, which extended in a semi- 
circle from northern New Jersey through the thTcon-^ 
Highlands below West Point to Danbury, Con- necticut 
necticut. The Tories made frequent raids from ^^^*' ^" ^' 
the British fines into New Jersey or up the Hud- 
son, and in July, 1779, a large body of them under Governor 
Tryon raided the Connecticut coast, burning Fairfield and 
Norwalk, and destroying the shipping in New Haven Harbor. 

West Point had been very strongly fortified and was 
the key to the American position. Lower down the river 
the Americans had fortified Stony Point on the ^^.^^ p^^^^ 
west bank and Verplank's Point on the opposite captured by 
bank. On May 31, 1779, Sir Henry Clinton ^''aynr 
captured and garrisoned Stony Point. Early on July i6, 
the morning of July 16 Anthony Wayne car- ^'^'^^ 
ied this position by storm. On August 18 Major Henry 
Lee, famiUarly known as "Light-Horse Harry," with a 
small force of picked men stormed the fort at Paulus Hook 
on the present site of Jersey City and captured the garrison, 



152 



The American Revolution 



but retired under fire of the ships in the river. These two 
daring exploits were not of very much importance from a 
military point of view, but they were a great encouragement 
to the Americans and caused corresponding depression 
among the British. 

By the Quebec Act of 1774 the territory lying between 
the Ohio and Mississippi rivers was annexed to the prov- 
ince of Quebec, and soon after the beginning of the Revolu- 
r> A- ,4 . tion Colonel 

Condihons 

on the west- Hamilton, the 

ern frontier ^^.-^-^j^ ^^^_ 

mander at Detroit, un- 
dertook to organize the 
Indians of the northwest 
for an attack on the 
settlers south and east of 
the Ohio River. But his 
plans were thwarted by 
the foresight of a young 
Virginian, George Rogers 
Clark, one of the early 
settlers in Kentucky, 
who, counting on the sup- 
port of the French in- 
habitants, was convinced 
that with a small force he 
could take possession of this territory. Late in the autumn 
of 1777 he made his way back to Virginia along the Wilder- 
ness Road and laid his plans before Governor Henry. 

As it was of the utmost importance that the enterprise 

should be kept secret, the governor did not con- 
of George sult the legislature, but after conferring with 
Rogers Jefferson, Wythe, and Madison, he authorized 

Clark to raise a force of 350 men for the enter- 
prise. Clark immediately proceeded to the neighborhood of 




Gkohue Rogers Clark. 



The French AUiance 153 

Pittsburg, where he began making enhstments nominally 
for the defense of Kentucky. By May, 1778, he had suc- 
ceeded with difficulty in getting together 180 picked riflemen, 
a flotilla of small boats, and a few pieces of light artillery. 
With these he proceeded down the Ohio to its junction with 
the Mississippi and disembarked in what is now southern 
Illinois. Marching his force over the prairie to Kaskaskia 
he surprised the garrison and took possession of the town 
without resistance. With the aid of Father Gibault, a 
Catholic priest, he succeeded in winning over Cahokia and 
other neighboring villages. 

As soon as Governor Hamilton heard of these events 
he marched from Detroit with a motley force composed of 
500 men, regulars, Tories, and Indians, to Vin- 
cennes on the Wabash and garrisoned that fort ; '^^^'^^p^^^^ 
but Clark was not to be outdone. Sending cennes, 
some provisions and a few pieces of artillery ^^^^3, 
around by the Ohio and Wabash, he set out from 
Kaskaskia in the dead of winter with 130 men, marched for 
sixteen days in the face of apparently insurmountable 
difficulties across the drowned lands of Illinois, met his 
boats just in time to save his party from starvation and 
despair, and appeared before Vincennes to the utter amaze- 
ment of the British garrison. The town readily submitted, 
and after a siege of twenty hours, Hamilton surrendered the 
fort on February 23. The Northwest Territory was thus 
secured to Virginia and organized as the ''county" of 
Illinois. 

The importance of this brilliant exploit was destined to 
be far greater than even Clark foresaw, for when the treaty 
of peace was being negotiated at Paris in 1782, ^^ . 
America's allies, France and Spain, were both more of Clark's 
than willing to sacrifice her interest in order to ®^p'°'* 
keep her out of the Mississippi valley, and the western bound- 
ary of the United States would undoubtedly have been fixed 



154 The American Revolution 

at the AUeghanies but for the fact that this western region 
was actually occupied by Virginians. 

At the beginning of the Revolution Congress had made 
some effort to establish a navy, but with little success, 
e* X • Several of the States, Massachusetts, Connecti- 
and cut, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Caro- 

pnvateers j-^^^^ organized State navies, but their operations 
were largely limited to the bays and rivers and their principal 
task was in warding off the marauding attacks of Tories. 
The seafaring experience of New Englanders found employ- 
ment in privateering which was very popular and profitable. 
Even in privateering, however, the British had the advan- 
tage, for prior to the French alliance the Americans had 
captured six hundred British merchant vessels, while the 
British cruisers had captured nine hundred American vessels. 

America produced one naval hero, however, whose repu- 
tation is world-wide, John Paul Jones. He was a Scotch- 
John Paul man by birth who came to Virginia in 1773 and 
Jones settled at Fredericksburg. Jones was given com- 

mand of the Ranger in 1777, and in the following spring he 
captured the British man-of-war Drake and made a descent 
on the town of Whitehaven on the Enghsh coast. In 1779, 
with the aid of France, he went to sea with five vessels, his 
flagship being the Bonhomme Richard. During the summer 
he cruised up and down the British coast, striking terror 
into the inhabitants and taking many prizes. On Septem- 
ber 23, he met at the mouth of the Humber a fleet of mer- 
chant vessels convoyed by the men-of-war Serapis and 
Countess of Scarborough. After an hour's cannonading the 
Bonhomme Richard ran into the Serapis, and the bowsprit 
of the British vessel finally ran over the poop of the Amer- 
ican ship. Jones quickly lashed the ships together and a 
desperate fight ensued at close quarters. When called on to 
surrender he replied that he had just begun to fight. After 
both ships were nearly destroyed the Serapis surrendered. 



The French Alliance 155 

The Scarborough meanwhile had been captured by the 
Pallas. 

Jones took his prizes to Holland and kept them there for 
several weeks despite the demand of the British government 
for their surrender. The Dutch sympathized 
deeply with the American cause, but under declares war 
the pressure of England the government finally on Holland, 
ordered Jones to leave. He escaped with his jAq^*'' 
ships to France. In October, 1780, the British 
captured Henry Laurens, who was on his way to Holland to 
negotiate a loan and had among his papers the draft of a 
treaty signed by an xVmerican agent and the chief magistrate 
of Amsterdam without, however, the authorization of the 
States-General. This caused great indignation in Eng- 
land, and the Dutch government was called upon to disavow 
the act and punish the magistrate. The Dutch govern- 
ment disavowed the act, but refused to punish the magis- 
trate of Amsterdam. On December 20, England declared 
war against Holland. 

This incident, however, was not the real reason for war. 
Holland had just joined the agreement which had existed 
for several months between Russia, Denmark, and 
Sweden, known as the "Armed Neutrality." war with the 
Catherine H had organized this maritime league great naval 
for the protection of neutral commerce. Eng- 
land denied the doctrine of the league, that free ships make 
free goods, but she did not care to go to war with Russia. 
Holland, however, had offended in other ways. Her West 
Indian possession, the island of St. Eustatius, had been the 
principal base for the Dutch contraband trade with the 
American colonies. The moment war was declared England 
sent orders to Rodney, who had left New York and was 
cruising in the West Indies, to completely destroy the 
island. These orders were ruthlessly carried out. England 
was now at war with France, Spain, and Holland, the three 



156 The American Revolution 

greatest naval powers next to herself, and on the naval 
situation the independence of America finally hinged. The 
end was not far off. 

TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. French Aid and the French Alliance: Fiske, American Revo- 
lution, Vol. II, Chap. VIII ; Van Tyne, American Revolution, 
Chap. XII ; J. W. Foster, A Century of American Diplomacy, 
Chap. I ; Charlemagne Tower, The Marquis de La Fayette in the 
American Revolution, 2 Vols. ; E. S. Corwin, The French Alliance. 

2. Washington at Valley Forge: Fiske, Vol. II, Chap. IX; 
Greene, Revolutionary War, pp. 132-138 ; Carrington, Battles of 
the American Revolution, pp. 401-411. 

3. Monmouth and Newport: Fiske, Vol. II, Chap. X; Chan- 
ning. Vol. Ill, pp. 296-299; Greene, pp. 141-154; Carrington, 
pp. 412-456. 

4. Expedition of George Rogers Clark : Fiske, Vol. II, pp. 103- 
109 ; Van Tyne, Chap. XV ; Roosevelt, Winning of the West, 
Vol. II, Chaps. I-III. 

5. John Paul Jones: Fiske, Vol. II, pp. 116-129; Channing, 
Vol. Ill, pp. 308-310; E. S. Maclay, History of the Navy, Vol. I, 
Part I. 

6. Spain and Holland at War with England : Fiske, Vol. II, 
pp. 130-162; Van Tyne, Chap. XVII; Channing, Vol; III, 
Chap. X. 



CHAPTER IX 
THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 

After the surrender of Burgoyne, the British forces in 
the north acted almost entirely on the defensive. The at- 
tempt to break the rebellion at the center had 
failed, but the ministry thought that they might overrun by 
at least seize and hold Georgia and the Carohnas, the British, 
and, if successful in this attempt, Virginia also. 
After the defeat of the British fleet before Charleston in June, 
1776, the Southern States had been left for a time unmolested. 
In 1778 there had been a sort of border warfare between 
Georgia and Florida carried on, on the British side, mainly 
by Tories. The American forces in the south were under 
command of General Robert Howe of North Carolina. 
Howe was not very successful in the defense of Georgia and, 
after the occupation of Savannah by a force of 3500 British 
regulars from New York, the State was entirely overrun by 
the British. 

General Benjamin Lincoln of Massachusetts was ap- 
pointed by Congress to supersede Howe in command of the 
southern department and arrived at Charleston in 
December, 1778. In September, 1779, D'Estaing J^^l^^!'' 
appeared with a powerful French fleet off the pulsed at 

" annah 
9, 1779 



coast of Georgia, and he and Lincoln planned the oct^'^"^ 



recapture of Savannah. On the 23d their com- 
bined forces invested the city, but after three weeks 
D'Estaing grew impatient, fearing that an autumnal storm 
might overtake his fleet. On October 9 therefore he under- 
took to carry the city by assault. Some of the outer works 

157 



158 The American Revolution 

were carried, but the British held their own and the Ameri- 
cans were totally defeated, losing more than 1000 men, 
among them the gallant Pulaski. The French fleet was with- 
drawn and Lincoln retired to Charleston, 

When Sir Henry Clinton learned that the French fleet had 
left he and Cornwallis went south with a force of 8000 men. 
After their arrival in Georgia, the British were 
Charleston, able to muster a force of more than 10,000. From 
May 12, Georgia the British advanced against Charleston, 
arriving in sight of the city February 26, 1780. 
Lincoln had put into the city all the reenforcements that 
he could get, Washington had sent south practically the 
whole Virginia line, its ranks greatly depleted by hard serv- 
ice in New Jersey and around New York. This detachment 
consisted of the brigades of Generals Woodford and Scott. 
Washington had also detached from his army most of the 
North Carolina troops. 

Lincoln's entire force at Charleston numbered 7000 men. 
He should unquestionably have withdrawn his troops before 
the city was invested, as there was no hope of his being able 
to hold out against the combined attack of Clinton's army 
and the British navy. Finally on May 12, 1780, when the 
British were preparing to begin an assault, Lincoln sur- 
rendered in order to avoid unnecessary loss of life. The mili- 
tia were allowed to go home on parole but the 3000 Conti- 
nental troops were held as prisoners till regularly exchanged. 

The loss of Charleston was a serious blow, but the loss 
of Lincoln's army at this time was nothing short of a dis- 
aster. In a short time the whole of South Caro- 
warfarein lina was Overrun by the British. Under the over- 
South shadowing presence of the British army the Tories 
became very active, raiding the plantations of 
their neighbors and settling many an old score. The 
patriots, however, did not give up the contest. Partisan 
corps commanded by Pickens, Sumter, and Marion resorted 



The War in the South 



159 



to a sort of guerrilla warfare in order to check the ravages 
of the British and punish the Tories. On August G, 1780, 
Sumter surprised the British post at Hanging Rock and 
routed the whole regiment, capturing those who were not 




Operations in the South. 

killed. Andrew Jackson, then a boy of thirteen, took part 
in this fight. 

On June 20, Baron de Kalb arrived at Hillsboro, North 
Carolina, with another detachment from Washington's army 
of 2000 Maryland and Delaware troops. About the same 
time General Gates was placed by Congress in command of 
the southern department. On July 27 he began moving 



160 The. American Revolution 

his forces southward, the objective point of his campaign 
being Camden, South Carohna. On the 13th of August 

he arrived at Clermont, a few miles north of 
Gate^s^as- Camden. Lord Rawdon held Camden with a 
sumescom- comparatively small force and Gates should have 
Caroiinas ^ attacked him before Cornwallis had time to reen- 

force him. On the 14th General Stevens arrived 
with 700 Virginia miHtia, but that same day Cornwallis reached 
Camden with his regulars. The American army now num- 
bered 1400 regulars, chiefly of the Maryland line, and about 
1600 raw militia, while Cornwallis's united force was only 
2000, but they were all thoroughly seasoned troops. 

Not knowing of Cornwallis's arrival, Gates detached 
part of the Maryland regulars on a long march to the south 

to cooperate with Sumter, and on the night of the 
Camden, 15th moved forward on the road to Camden in- 
August i6, tending to surprise Lord Rawdon before daylight. 

At about the same hour Cornwallis started for- 
ward with the purpose of surprising Gates. About three 
o'clock in the morning the skirmish lines of the two armies 
met. Both halted and waited for daylight. Baron de Kalb 
urged Gates to retire to Clermont and take a strong position 
there, but Gates insisted on fighting, although he learned that 
Cornwallis had joined Rawdon. 

In the battle that followed the Virginia and North Caro- 
lina militia, which formed Gates's left wing, broke and fled 
before the advance of the British regulars, and Gates was 
borne along with them. The first Maryland brigade was 
also forced off the field, but the second Maryland held its 
position until the rest of the battle was lost, when it retired 
in good order. While bravely directing the movements of 
the Maryland and Delaware troops. Baron de Kalb was 
killed. It was the worst defeat suffered by the Americans 
during the war and Gates beat a hasty retreat back to 
Hillsboro. 



The War in the South 



161 



In Februao^, 1779, Lafayette had returned to France to 
visit his family and to urge that a French army be sent to 
America. On the 10th of July, 1780, the French army of 
6000 men arrived at Newport, Rhode Island, commanded by 
Comte Rochambeau. The Frenchmen who had served in the 
American army prior to this time were individual volunteers. 

Rochambeau's comte 
troops were Rocham- 

, beau arrives 
sent over by at Newport 

the French ^ith a 

French 
government, army, July, 

Almost im- ^78o 
mediately after its ar- 
rival the French fleet 
was blockaded in Nar- 
ragansett Bay by a 
powerful British squad- 
ron and the French army 
was kept there idle for 
a year in order to render 
aid to the fleet if it should 
become necessary. 

The country had not 
recovered from the de- 
jection following the 
battle at Camden when, in September, 1780, it was startled 
by the news of Benedict Arnold's treason. Arnold had ren- 
dered distinguished services to his country, and Washington 
had repeatedly recommended him for advance- 
ment, but less efficient men had been promoted 
over his head through political influence. Arnold 
had married the beautiful Margaret Shippen, a jyl**™ ^^' 
member of one of the leading Tory families of 
Philadelphia, and this had weakened his influence with the 
Whigs. In July he had been placed by Washington in com- 




Benedict Arnold. 



The treason 
of Benedict 
Arnold, 



162 The American Revolution 

mand of West Point which was the key to the American situ- 
ation on the Hudson. 

Shortly afterwards Arnold entered into a treasonable 
correspondence with Sir Henry Clinton, who finally sent 
Major Andre, a member of his staff, to West Point to confer 
with him. While making his way back to the Vulture with 
a passport from Arnold, Andre was arrested by a party of 
patriots and sent to Washington's headquarters under 
suspicion of being a spy. While not a spy in the ordinary 
sense, he had come into the American lines under a flag of 
truce for a purpose not covered by such a flag. He was 
therefore condemned by a court-martial as a spy and, in spite 
of the sympathy which his attractive personality and noble 
bearing elicited, Washington refused to modify the sentence 
and he was hanged. Arnold had made his escape to the 
British lines. 

About a month after the battle of Camden, Cornwallis 
invaded North Carolina and advanced as far as Charlotte. 
He had detached Major Patrick Ferguson with 
m"g^s°* a force of 200 British infantry and 1000 Tories 
Mountain, to go through the western counties of South Car- 
October?, Qiina for the purpose of enlisting more Tories. 
The approach of Ferguson aroused the back- 
woodsmen far and wide, and finding himself in danger of 
being surrounded he began his retreat towards the main 
army at Charlotte, followed closely by about 1000 picked 
frontiersmen. These men came from various directions : 
James Williams from South Carolina, William Campbell 
from Virginia, Benjamin Cleveland and Charles McDowell 
from North Carolina, and Isaac Shelby and John Sevier from 
across the mountains in Tennessee. On the night of October 
6, Ferguson camped on one of the southern spurs of King's 
Mountain. The mountain itself lies in North Carolina, but 
the battle was fought just across the line in South Carolina. 
The position was a strong one, and when Ferguson looked 



The War in the South 



163 



about him on the morning of the 7th he exclaimed : " Well, 
boys, here is a place from which all the rebels outside of Hell 
cannot drive us." About three o'clock in the afternoon the 
position was stormed from three directions by the Ameri- 
cans, who advanced in true backwoodsman's fashion from 
tree to tree and from rock to rock, picking off the enemy one 

by one with deliberate 
aim. As they closed in 
on the British Ferguson 
was killed and the sur- 
vivors surrendered. This 
brilliant victory helped 
to revive the spirits of 
the desponding patriots. 
As soon as Cornwallis 
heard of the disaster 
which had 
overtaken Fer- 
guson, he re- 
treated into 
South Caro- 
lina, and shortly after- 
wards Gates advanced 
with his shattered army 
from Hillsboro to Char- 
lotte. On December 2, Greene, who had been appointed 
by Washington to supersede Gates, arrived at Charlotte 
and took command of the southern department. Shortly 
before this the southern army had received another acces- 
sion of strength in the arrival of Daniel Morgan. After 
the failure of Congress to recognize his services at Saratoga 
by promoting him to a brigadier generalship, he resigned 
his commission and returned to his home in Virginia. After 
the disaster at Camden, however, he was prevailed upon to 
reenter the service and Congress gave him the rank of briga- 




General 

Greene 

supersedes 

Gates, 

December 2, 

1780 



Henry Lee, known as " Light Horse 
^ Harry" Lee. 



164 



The American Revolution 



dier general which he had so long deserved. "Light-Horse 

Harry" Lee and Colonel Wilham Washington, both superb 

cavalry commanders, also joined the southern army about 

this time. Cornwallis soon made ready to advance into 

North Carolina, but he was harassed by Morgan, who was 

operating on his left 

flank. 

When Cornwalhs began 

the advance, he sent 

Tarleton with 
Battle of n 1 i 1 

Cowpens, ^ small detacn- 

January 17, ment to look 

after Morgan. 
These forces met in bat- 
tle at Cowpens, January 
17, 178L Although the 
number of troops en- 
gaged was small, this bat- 
tle is from a strategic 
point of view one of the 
most interesting of the 
whole war. As Tarleton 
was acting on the aggres- 
sive, Morgan selected his 

own ground. He stationed his main body of Continental troops 
on the brow of a gentle hill with the Broad River in his rear. 
A hundred and fifty yards in front he stationed the Carolina 
and Georgia militia under General Pickens. About the same 
distance in his rear, on another slight elevation, he placed 
Wilham Washington and his cavalry. The militia were or- 
dered to fire a few volleys as the British advanced and then 
to retire around the American left and re-form in the rear. 

This plan was strictly adhered to. Tarleton charged the 
American line with his usual impetuosity and the militia 
retired according to orders. Just as the British charged the 




Daniel Morgan. 



The War in the South 165 

main, line, Washington swept with his cavahy around the 
American left and took them in the rear, while Pickens's 
militia hastily re-forming circled around the American right 
and attacked the British in flank and rear. The greater 
part of the British force immediately threw down their 
arms and surrendered, while Tarleton with a few horsemen 
fled from the field. 

Greene now led Cornwallis a chase across North Carolina 
and finally retired across the Dan into Virginia, where he 
was reenforced. He then returned into North Q^eene 
Carolina and offered battle at Guilford Court wears Corn- 
House, March 15. This battle was hotly con- ^^^^o"* 
tested and at nightfall Greene was finally compelled to 
retire, leaving the enemy in possession of the field. The 
British had fought with magnificent courage but were too 
crippled to continue the campaign and Cornwallis retreated 
in haste to Wilmington, the nearest point on the seacoast. 

When Cornwallis got to Wilmington he did not like to 
acknowledge defeat by taking his army back to Charleston 
by sea and beginning again "the conquest of the Carolinas." 
Sir Henry Clinton had recently sent General Phillips to Vir- 
ginia with a strong force, and Cornwallis now decided to 
abandon the Carolinas and unite his army with that of 
Phillips. This change of campaign was adopted solely on 
the responsibility of Cornwallis and without ' the sanction 
of Sir Henry Clinton. 

Greene meanwhile marched into South Carolina and ad- 
vanced toward Camden, which was held by Lord Rawdon. 
Fort Watson, which stood midway between Cam- „ 

Greene s 

den and Charleston and commanded Lord Raw- operations 
don's line of communications, was captured by i? South 

. A 1 r^r, IT 1 -r. Carolina 

Lee and Marion April 23, and Lord Rawdon was 
thus compelled to evacuate Camden, although, before doing 
so, he inflicted a defeat on Greene at Hobkirk's Hill about 
two miles north of Camden, April 25. Rawdon then retired 



166 The American Revolution 

to Monk's Corner, about thirty miles north of Charleston. 
During May and June all the remaining inland posts were 
taken from the British. 

During the summer Rawdon returned to England, leaving 
Colonel Stuart in command. On September 8, 1781, Greene 
attacked the British at Eutaw Springs. During the first part 
of the battle the British were driven from the field, but they 
succeeded in forming a new line which was protected by a 
brick house and palisaded garden, and from this position the 
Americans were unable to drive them. The victory was 
therefore claimed by the British, but the following evening 
they beat a hasty retreat and during the rest of the war 
they were cooped up in Charleston under the protection of 
their ships. 

Virginia, which Cornwallis now chose as the scene of his 
operations, had been free from invaders during the greater 
part of the war, but during Jefferson's governor- 
multe^"* ship, 1779-1781, Sir Henry Clinton sent three ex- 
operations peditions to raid and harry the coasts and rivers : 
im-f 5^i' Matthews and Collier in 1779 ; Leshe in 1780 ; and 
Arnold and Philhps in 1781. On January 2, 1781, 
Benedict Arnold landed at Portsmouth and two days later 
proceeded up the James to Richmond. After destroying 
everything of value he fell back down the river to Ports- 
mouth, where he was kept closely within his intrenchments 
by the militia which Muhlenberg had collected. In view of 
the helpless state of Virginia, Washington dispatched Lafay- 
ette to its aid with 1200 regulars from the main army, hoping 
through the cooperation of the French fleet to capture Arnold. 

Leaving his troops at the head of Elk River in Maryland, 
Lafayette hastened forward to Virginia. On March 19 
he arrived at Muhlenberg's camp near Suffolk, but the next 
day the British fleet of Admiral Arbuthnot, having defeated 
the French fleet of Destouches off the Capes, landed 2000 men 
at Portsmouth under command of Major General Phillips. 



The War in the South 



167 



Advancing up the James again the British destroyed a large 
quantity of tobacco and other stores at Petersburg, but were 
prevented from taking Richmond by the timely arrival of 
Lafayette's force. On May 31, 1781, General Phillips died 
at Petersburg and a week later Cornwallis arrived with 
his army from the Carolinas and assumed direct com- 
mand, soon after which 
Arnold returned to New 
York. 

Cornwallis 's force had 
now been raised to 5000 

veteran sol- campaign of 
diers. The Cornwallis 

only American i" Virginia 
army in the State was 
that of Lafayette, which 
was stationed at Rich- 
mond and numbered 3000 
men, two thirds of them 
raw militia. Lafayette 
was at this time twenty- 
three years of age, but he 
conducted a very skillful 
campaign, keeping out of 
Cornwallis's reach, while continually harassing him. 

As Cornwallis advanced from Petersburg to Richmond, 
Lafayette retired toward Fredericksburg. On June 4 he 
crossed the Rapidan at Ely's Ford and halted in a strong 
position. Cornwallis refrained from following him and sent 
Tarleton on a raid to Charlottesville for the purpose of break- 
ing up the legislature and seizing Thomas Jefferson. Jeffer- 
son was surprised at Monticello, but hastily mounting a horse 
managed to escape into the mountains. On the 10th of 
June Lafayette effected a junction with Wayne, who had been 
sent to reenforce him with a body of Pennsylvania regulars. 




Anthony Wayne. 



168 



The American Revolution 



Cornwallis 
retires to 
Yorktown, 
August, 
1 781 



Lafayette was now strong enough to cause Cornwallis 
considerable annoyance and on June 15 the latter retreated 
toward Richmond. On the 20th Cornwallis con- 
tinued his retreat from Richmond and marched 
down the peninsula toward Williamsburg. Lafay- 
ette's force had been joined by Steuben and also 
by Virginia militia until he had 5000 men under 
his command, and he fol- 
lowed closely on the Brit- 
ish rear. On the 6th of 
July a fight occurred at 
Green Spring near Wil- 
liamsburg in which the 
American advance was re- 
pulsed. Early in August 
Cornwallis occupied York- 
town and ordered over to 
his assistance the garrison 
from Portsmouth, so that 
his force numbered 7000. 
Lafayette established him- 
self at Malvern Hill, keeping 
a close eye on Cornwallis. 

Washington was meanwhile watching the situation with 
intense interest, and when he learned the relative positions 
Washington ^^ ^^^^ armies on the peninsula, he was quick to 
grasp the opportunity of crushing Cornwallis with 
the aid of the French navy and bringing the war 
to a close. On August 14, he received a message 
from Count de Grasse, who had a powerful French 
fleet in the West Indies, that he was just starting for Chesa- 
peake Bay. Washington and Rochambeau had been urging 
this for some time. Rochambeau 's army had already joined 
Washington on the Hudson. Sir Henry Clinton was expect- 
ing an attack on New York, so that Washington and Ro- 




Marquis de Lafayette. 



andRo 
chambeau 
join 

Lafayette in 
Virginia 



The War in the South 



169 



chambeau got their troops half through New Jersey before his 
suspicions were aroused as to their real object. General 
Heath remained at West Point with 4000 men. 

Washington took south with him 2000 Continentals and 
4000 Frenchmen. By the 5th of September they reached 
the head of Chesapeake Bay and from that point 

,1 Surrender of 

they were comwaiiis 

conveyed at Yorktown, 

in ships %%f>^^^^' 
to York- 
town, where they 
arrived on the 18th. 
On September 31 
the French squad- 
ron arrived on the 
scene and the siege 
of Yorktown began. 
On the 14th of Octo- 
ber Alexander Ham- 
ilton with a part 
of Muhlenberg's 
brigade, and the 
Baron de Viomenil, 
stormed and carried 
two of the British redoubts. On the 17th Cornwallis asked 
for terms of surrender and the formal surrender took place 
October 19, 1781. General Lincoln, who was in command 
of the American army at the fall of Charleston, was desig- 
nated by Washington to receive the surrender. 

The surrender of Cornwallis was regarded on both sides 
of the Atlantic as marking the end of the war. Con- _ 

Pcflcc com™ 

gress had already appointed a peace commission, missioners 
consisting of Adams, Franklin, Jay, Laurens, and appo>°ted 
Jefferson, so as to be ready to open negotiations 
at the earliest favorable moment. Their instructions were 



\ 


~\ 


^i/ 


"'^-^.> 
X 


^ o 


4> 


R I V 


E P 








^ 


«*'-'*~^ 


"-TV" 

BrilisIF 
Reboubt 










^\'^ \. 


,^.«™«IT». 






/ M„«re-a Uous^""*^ 


\\ 












^"^*"=*=^jFVcnrA 


and 


"^xN^ 




American Batteries II 






1^ Lincoln's 
^t Quarters 






FIELD OF t<^' 


^ i^Lafayette's 
^ Quarters 






SURRENDER 




^^ < ^ ^^ ^^ Steuben's Quarter* | 




am. JCc 


S'& 




^yaahington 


chambeau'a 




HeadqtiarterB 


Headquartera 





Operations at Yorktown. 



170 The American Revolution 

that the independence of the colonies should be recognized, 
and that the existing treaties with France should be ob- 
served. The commissioners were, furthermore, explicitly 
directed "to make the most candid and confidential com- 
munications upon all subjects to the ministers of our gen- 
erous ally, the King of France ; to undertake nothing in the 
negotiations for peace or truce without their knowledge or 
concurrence ; and ultimately to govern yourselves by their 
advice and opinion." Jefferson declined the mission, 
Laurens was still a prisoner in London, Jay was occupied 
for the next year with negotiations in Spain, and Adams was 
engaged in negotiating a treaty with Holland which was not 
concluded for more than a year, so that Franklin had the 
responsibility of conducting the early negotiations alone. 

The diplomatic situation was peculiar : the United States 
were in alliance with France and their commissioners under 
instructions not to make peace without the con- 
ties of the sent of that power ; Spain was at war with Great 
diplomatic Britain, but at heart hostile to the Americans; 
France and Spain had common interests not in 
harmony with the interests of the United States ; Holland 
was at war with England and loaning money to the Ameri- 
cans, but suspicious of France. In England the North minis- 
try had been overthrown, but their successors were divided 
as to the poHcy to be pursued. The House of Commons 
had declared in favor of peace, but the king was still utterly 
opposed to the recognition of independence. Rarely, if ever, 
have American diplomats had to face such complex condi- 
tions. 

In April, 1782, Richard Oswald, a retired Scotch merchant, 
was sent to Paris by Lord Shelburne, the head of the new 
Preliminary ministry, on a confidential mission to Franklin, 
negotiations jjg carried back to London a memorandum of 
Franklin's views respecting the terms of peace and soon 
returned to Paris with a commission authorizing him to treat 



The War in the South 171 

with the "Colonies." FrankUn and Vergennes thought the 
commission sufficient to justify negotiations, but Jay, who 
had lately joined Franklin, objected, insisting that Oswald's 
commission should mention the "United States/' 

About the same time Jay heard through a confidential 
source that Vergennes favored giving Spain the territory 
between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi as far North as 
the Ohio River, and without consulting Franklin he sent a 
secret agent to London to confer with Lord Shelburne. As 
a result a new commission, entirely satisfactory to Jay, was 
sent to Oswald, and the latter was also instructed to hasten 
independent negotiations with the American commissioners. 
Shelburne preferred having the United States in the Ohio 
Valley rather than Spain and he was pleased at the prospect 
of breaking the French alliance. Accordingly he directed 
Oswald to act so as "to regain the affections of America." 
While Jay and Franklin were divided on the question as to 
whether they should break their instructions and negotiate 
independently of France, Adams arrived from Holland and 
at once sided with Jay. Thus, in. order to circumvent the 
alleged schemes of their allies, the American commissioners 
joined forces with their enemy. 

In the negotiations the Americans insisted on three 
points : first, that the western boundary of the United 
States should extend to the Mississippi ; second, The points 
that they should have the right of free navigation ^^ ^^^"^ 
to the mouth of that river ; and third, that Americans should 
retain the right to fish on the coasts of Newfoundland, Nova 
Scotia, and Labrador. On the British side two points were 
pressed : first, that American independence should be 
complete and free from France ; and second, that British 
debts should be secured and the loyalists restored to their 
rights. Most of these points were settled without great 
difficulty. 

At first Great Britain claimed the whole of Maine, but the 



172 The American Revolution 

St. Croix River was finally agreed on ; from the source of 
the St. Croix the boundary was to follow the highlands to the 
Boundaries Connecticut River, along that river to the forty- 
defined fifth parallel, thence westward to the St. Law- 
rence, through the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes to the 
Lake of the Woods and from the northwest point of that 
lake due west to the Mississippi ; thence down the Missis- 
sippi to the thirty-first parallel ; thence along the thirty- 
first parallel to the Appalachicola, down the Appalachicola 
to its junction with the Flint, thence east to the head of 
the St. Mary's River and down that river to the Atlantic 
Ocean. While the description of this boundary in the 
treaty seems sufficiently clear, very little was known of the 
St. Croix River or of the Lake of the Woods and the source 
of the Mississippi, and the language was later found to be 
inexact and open to differing constructions, a fact which led 
in the years to come to serious controversies. 

American fishermen were admitted to the waters of 
Canada and Newfoundland, and the right to navigate the 
other points Mississippi was secured. It was also agreed that 
agreed on j|o impediments should be thrown in the way of 
the legal recovery of debts due to British subjects, but the 
demand that the American Congress should restore to the 
loyalists their confiscated estates, valued at $20,000,000, 
or reimburse them with public lands, met with determined 
opposition. It was finally agreed that Congress should 
earnestly recommend to the States to restore to the loyal- 
ists their confiscated property. It was, however, generally 
understood that this recommendation would amount to 
nothing. Great Britain herself later compensated the more 
active loyalists with pensions or lands in Canada. 

The preliminary treaty was signed November 30, 1782. 
Laurens, having arrived two days before, united with 
Franklin, Jay, and Adams in signing it. Vergennes was 
not consulted in the negotiations and not informed of the 



The War in the South 173 

terms of the treaty until after it was signed. It took all of 
Franklin's suavity and tact to appease him. xhet e t 
Franklin said to him : "Nothing has been agreed, signed, its 
in the preliminaries, contrary to the interests of "•^^p*'"'^ 
France ; and no peace is to take place between us and England 
till you have concluded yours." 

The feeling of the majority of the Congress of the United 
States was that the commissioners were not justified in de- 
parting from their instructions. They were, therefore, 
thanked for their services, but mildly reproved for their 
conduct towards France. In England the treaty was re- 
garded as too liberal in its terms and it caused the overthrow 
of the ministry, but the new ministry signed the definitive 
treaty in the exact terms of the preliminary, September 3, 
1783. 

During the war the revenues of the government had 
been derived from three sources : Continental paper currency, 
known as "bills of credit" ; domestic and foreign pjnances f 
loans ; and taxes, levied by means of requisitions the Revoiu- 
on the States. From the last source less than **°° 
$6,000,000 was derived, since the States failed to honor the 
requisitions of Congress. Over $240,000,000 of paper money 
was issued between 1775 and 1779, but as Congress was un- 
able to redeem any of it at par, it rapidly depreciated, and 
finally became utterly worthless. From domestic loans and 
supplies about $28,000,000 was received. The agents of the 
United States abroad borrowed $6,352,500 from France, 
$1,304,000 from Holland, and S174,000 from Spain, making 
a total of $7,830,500. The individual States, besides issuing 
large volumes of paper money, incurred heavy foreign and 
domestic debts in carrying on the war. The amount of 
the State debts was estimated by Hamilton in 1790 at 
$25,000,000. 



174 The American Revolution 



TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. The War in the South: Fiske, American Revolution, Vol. II, 
pp. 164-185 ; Greene, Revolutionary War, pp. 191-214 ; Carring- 
ton, Battles of the American Revolution, pp. 477-498. 

2. The Battle of Camden : Fiske, Vol. II, pp. 185-194 ; Greene, 
pp. 215-219 ; Carrington, pp. 513-522. 

3. Treason of Benedict Arnold: Fiske, Vol. II, Chap. XIV; 
Van Tyne, American Revolution, pp. 306-308; Channing, History 
of the United States, Vol. Ill, pp. 304-307 ; Greene, pp. 166-169. 

4. King's Mountain and Cowpens: Fiske, Vol. II, pp. 244-255; 
Greene, pp. 223-231 ; Carrington, pp. 542-547 ; Roosevelt, Win- 
ning of the West, Vol. II, Chap. IX. 

5. Greene and Cornwallis in the Carolinas : Fiske, Vol. II, pp. 
256-268 ; Greene, pp. 232-258 ; Carrington, pp. 547-583. 

6. The Yorktown Campaign: Fiske, Vol. II, pp. 269-290; 
Greene, pp. 259-281 ; Carrington, pp. 584-647. 

7. The Peace Negotiations: Channing, Vol. Ill, pp. 346-373; 
Fiske, Critical Period, Chap. I ; Foster, Century of American 
Diplomacy, Chap. II ; A. C. McLaughlin, The Confederation and 
the Constitution, Chaps. I, II. 



PART Til 

NATIONAL ORGANIZATION 

CHAPTER X 
THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION 

The States had at last won their independence, but they 
were burdened with heavy foreign and domestic debts and 
held together in a precarious union by a constitu- xhe Articles 
tion which was utterly inadequate to meet the ofCon- 
demands of the future. During the greater part ® eration 
of the Revolution the only central governing body was the 
Continental Congress, which exercised only such authority 
and powers as the States cared for the time being to recog- 
nize. The Articles of Confederation which had l^een drafted 
by the Continental Congress and submitted to the States 
in 1777 were not finally ratified until 1781, a few months be- 
fore the surrender of Cornwallis. They established a weak 
Confederation, without an executive or a judiciary, and with 
a Congress which had no power to regulate commerce or to 
levy taxes. When it needed money it had to ask the States. 
It could not proceed against individuals, and if a State re- 
fused to pay its share of a requisition, there was no redress, 
as the coercion of a State was out of the question. 

The Articles contained one clause of importance which was 
retained in the Constitution of the United States and which 
was the first step toward the creation of a national citizenship. 
It provided that the free inhabitants of each State should be 

175 



176 National Organization 

"entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens 
in the several States." Such in brief was the first instrument 
of government adopted by the United States. After the war 
was over and all immediate danger removed the States paid 
less heed than ever to what little power Congress possessed 
and that body sank into a state of hopeless inefficiency. 
Its latter days were redeemed, however, by one measure of 
consummate statesmanship, the famous Ordinance of 1787, 

The territory north of the Ohio River was claimed by 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Virginia. 
Claims to '^^^^ claims of Massachusetts and Connecticut 
western were based on their colonial charters ; the claim 
^ ^ of New York was based on the theory that 

she had fallen heir to all the lands over which the Iroquois 
had held sway ; while that of Virginia which overlapped all 
the others was based on the charter of 1609 supplemented 
by the conquest of George Rogers Clark. South of the 
Ohio Virginia's claim to Kentucky was generally recognized, 
while the remaining territory as far south as the thirty- 
first parallel was claimed by North and South Carolina 
and Georgia. The other six States had no western lands 
and desired to extend the authority of Congress over the 
disputed area. 

On October 15, 1777, while the Articles of Confederation 
were still under discussion, the Maryland delegation pro- 
posed that Congress should be given the right to 
TemW^* ''fix the western boundary of such States as claim 
ceded to the to the Mississippi or South Sea ; and lay out the 
St'ate^ land beyond the boundary so ascertained into 

separate and independent States from time to 
time as the numbers and circumstances of the people thereof 
may require." Until this was done Maryland refused to 
ratify the Articles of Confederation. Her territory was 
limited and she did not care to be overshadowed by the vast 
empire which Virginia claimed. 




The United States in 1783 — State Claims and Cessions 



Adopftion of the Constitution 177 

At first the States concerned refused to meet the demands 
of Maryland, but in 1780 New York, whose claims were 
vague and shadowy, led the way in offering to surrender her 
claims. Connecticut followed the same year, and the 
following year Virginia agreed to cede all her lands north 
of the Ohio on condition that she should remain in undis- 
puted possession of Kentucky. Maryland then ratified the 
Articles March 1, 1781, and they went into effect. Massachu- 
setts did not cede her claims until 1785, and when Connecti- 
cut made the formal act of cession she retained 3,250,000 
acres along the southern shore of Lake Erie, which became 
known as the Western Reserve. Prior to these cessions the 
United States consisted of thirteen separate States ; now it 
was composed of thirteen States and a national domain. The 
existence of a national domain was to be a potent factor in 
the development of American nationality. 

In 1784 an ordinance drafted by Thomas Jefferson was 
introduced in Congress, providing for a division of the 
western lands into prospective States. His plan included 
the lands south of the Ohio as well as the Northwest Terri- 
tory, and provided that after the year 1800 there should be 
"neither slavery nor involuntary servitude otherwise than in 
punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been 
duly convicted." This ordinance was passed with the elim- 
ination of the slavery clause, but it never went into effect. 

In 1787 a new ordinance, introduced by Nathan Dane of 
Massachusetts, and limited to the lands which had been 
ceded north of the Ohio, was adopted by Con- ^. q ,. 
gress. Many of its features were borrowed from nance of 
Jefferson's ordinance. The Northwest Territory ^^^'^ 
was to be organized immediately by the appointment of a 
governor, a secretary, and a court of three judges, and as 
soon as there should be in the district five thousand free 
male inhabitants of full age they were to be granted a legis- 
lative assembly. The territory was eventually to be divided 



178 National Organization 

into not less than three nor more than five States, and when- 
ever any one of these States should have sixty thousand free 
inhabitants it was to be admitted into the Union on an equal 
footing with the original States. Freedom of worship, trial 
by jury, and other guarantees of personal liberty were 
perpetually estabhshed, education was to be encouraged, 
and slavery was excluded. This ordinance was a great state 
paper and it laid broad and deep the foundations of the ter- 
ritorial system by means of which the United States was 
enabled to prepare for statehood the vast territories that 
were later annexed. 

North Carolina ceded her western lands to Congress in 
1784. The settlers of eastern Tennessee, the region which 

had earlier been embraced within the Watauga 
The " state ... , , » o, 

of Frank- Association, promptly took steps to form a State 

lin," 1785- government in order to be prepared to protect 

themselves against the Indians. They drew up 

a constitution, took the name of the ''State of Franklin," 

elected John Sevier governor, and applied to Congress for 

admission into the Union. 

Meanwhile North Carolina had withdrawn her act of ces- 
sion and undertook to assert her authority over the region 
again. This almost led to civil war. Congress refused to 
intervene and when Sevier's term as governor expired, the 
inhabitants gave up all pretense of independence and recog- 
nized the authority of North Carolina once more. Sevier 
was arrested for treason and taken across the mountains for 
trial, but he was not prosecuted. 

The defects in the Articles of Confederation were being 
more fully realized each year. Congress had no control 
The need of Over commerce and was unable to raise enough 
a stronger money to pay the interest on the Revolu- 
""""^ tionary debt. Furthermore, disputes in regard 

to interstate commerce and the navigation of interstate 
waterways were continually arising and causing bad feeling. 



Adoption of the Constitution 179 

The government was falling into disrepute both at home and 
abroad and the country appeared to be drifting toward 
anarchy. Massachusetts was in the throes of open rebellion 
on the part of the debtor class led by Daniel Shays, a 
former captain in the Revolution. 

In the spring of 1785 commissioners from Maryland and 
Virginia met at Mount Vernon, at the invitation of Wash- 
ington, for the purpose of adjusting differences that had 
arisen over the navigation of the Potomac River. Out of this 
conference grew the idea of a general convention of the States 
to take into consideration the trade of the Union. At the 
suggestion of James Madison the Virginia legislature ap- 
pointed commissioners for this purpose in January, 1786, 
and the other States were invited to send delegates to meet 
them at Annapolis on the first Monday in September. 

As only five States responded to this invitation the Annap- 
olis Convention was unable to accomplish anything along 
the line suggested, but Alexander Hamilton sub- Thgpro- 
mitted a report, which was unanimously adopted, posaito 
proposing a convention of delegates from all the ^fc°es*o^ 
States to meet at Philadelphia the second Monday Confedera- 
in May, 1787, to take into consideration the state '°° 
of the Union. A copy of this report was transmitted to Con- 
gress, which hesitated to act, but finally on February 21, 1787, 
issued a call for a convention to meet at the time and place 
proposed "for the sole and express purpose of revising the 
Articles of Confederation," and to report such alterations 
as should "render the federal constitution adequate to the 
exigencies of government, and the preservation of the 
Union." 

It was a remarkable group of men that assembled in 
Philadelphia as delegates to the convention, ^j^^ Federal 
Washington, Franklin, Madison, Hamilton, Mason, Convention, 
Robert Morris, and Gouverneur Morris would ^^Vi^Ki^ 

' oeptemoer 

have rendered any assembly illustrious. Others i?, 1787 



180 National Omanization 



&' 



who were specially prominent in the proceedings were James 
Wilson of Pennsylvania ; William Samuel Johnson, Ohver 
Ellsworth, and Roger Sherman, of Connecticut ; Elbridge 
Gerry and Rufus King, of Massachusetts ; William Patterson, 
of New Jersey ; John Dicldnson, of Delaware ; Luther Martin, 
of Maryland ; and John Rutledge, C. C. Pinckney, Charles 
Pinckney, and Pierce Butler, of South Carolina. 

Rhode Island was the only State which did not choose 
any delegates. New Hampshire did not appoint hers until 
late and they did not take their seats until July 23. Mean- 
while two of New York's three delegates had withdrawn 
leaving Hamilton without a vote, so that not more than 
eleven States voted at any one time. 

By May 25 a sufficient number of delegates had arrived 
to enable the convention to organize and Washington was 
o aniza- elected president. The work of the convention 
tionand was Carried on behind closed doors and a rule 
procedure ^£ secrecy was imposed on its members. The 
official journal of the secretary, William Jackson, was very 
carelessly kept, but Madison kept copious notes for his own 
information which are much fuller and more accurate than 
the secretary's. Hasty notes were also made by Yates, King, 
and a few other members, and notwithstanding the rule 
of secrecy occasional letters were written by delegates to 
friends. When the convention adjourned Washington took 
charge of the journal and other papers, which he deposited with 
the Department of State in 1796. They were first printed 
by direction of Congress in 1819 and were followed later by 
the publication of Madison's journal and other material. 

On May 29 Governor Edmund Randolph, acting for the 
Virginia delegation, introduced a series of resolutions em- 
The Virginia bodying what became known as the Virginia plan, 
plan This plan provided for a national legislature of 

two houses in which the States should be represented accord- 
ing to quotas of contributions or to the number of free 



Adoption of the Constitution 181 

inhabitants; the members of the first branch were to be 
chosen by the people of the several States, and the members of 
the second branch were to be chosen by the first from a list 
of nominations made in each State by the legislature. It also 
provided for a national executive, and for a national judiciary ; 
the latter was to have jurisdiction over suits in which for- 
eigners were interested, which concerned the national revenue, 
or which involved the national peace and harmony, and was 
also to try impeachments. Provision was likewise made 
for the admission of new States, for the guaranty of a repub- 
lican government to each State, and for amendments. 

The Randolph resolutions were immediately taken up in 
detail and became the basis of the subsequent discussions. 
As they contemplated a national rather than a 
federal form of government, that question was at JonreTo?"' 
the start put before the convention, and on May to estabuir 

30 a resolution was adopted declaring "that a na- *°ati°°a' 
i- 1 , , , government 

tional government ought to be established con- 
sisting of a supreme Legislature, Executive, and Judi- 
ciary." Thus the convention set itself the task not of patch- 
ing up the old Articles of Confederation, but of framing a new 
constitution. 

By June 13 the Virginia plan had been adopted by the 
committee of the whole mthout radical change and was 
reported to the convention. So far the national The New 
party appeared to be in control, but the opposi- Jersey plan 
tion of the smaller states was merely gathering force. Be- 
fore proceeding with the discussion of the Virginia plan 
Wilham Patterson of New Jersey asked permission to in- 
troduce a new and totally different plan. The New Jersey 
plan provided nothing more than a revision of the Articles 
of Confederation. It proposed a plural executive and a judi- 
ciary. Congress was to be given the right to levy duties 
on imports and to regulate trade, and the executive was to 
have the right to coerce a State, or any body of men in a 



1S2 National Organization 

State, who refused obedience to the acts of Congress or to 
treaties. 

James Wilson made an excellent comparison of the two 
plans on the floor of the convention. He said : "The only 
Comparison difference between the plan from Virginia and the 
of the two plan from New Jersey is, in a word this : Virginia 
^ ^°^ proposes two branches to the legislature, Jersey 

one. Virginia would have the legislative power derived 
from the people, Jersey from the States. Virginia would 
have a single executive, Jersey more than one. By the Vir- 
ginia plan the national legislature can act on all national 
concerns. By the New Jersey plan only to a limited extent. 
By the one the legislature can negative all State laws. By 
the other the executive can compel obedience by force." 

Patterson said that the basis of the old Confederation was 
"equal sovereignty," and that the work of the convention 
The New was Hmited to a revision of the Articles of Con- 
jerseypian federation. In the discussion which followed 
the word Wilson, Madison, and Hamilton attacked the New 
national Jersey plan with great force, and by a vote of 
oftheVir- seven to three it was finally declared inadmis- 
giniapian sible. On June 19 the convention again took up 
the Virginia plan, but the opposition had developed such 
strength that on the following day the convention ordered 
that the word national be stricken out of the Randolph reso- 
lutions wherever it occurred. The word national as applied 
to the United States did not come into general use until after 
the Civil War. Even during that struggle the army of the 
United States was commonly spoken of as the Federal Army. 
The small '^^^^^ concession to the small State party encour- 

states aged them to renew the fight for a single legislative 

represen^ta- ^ody in which the States should have equal rep- 
tion in the resentation. It was finally decided that there 
®°^*^ should be two branches of the legislature and 

that in the first branch proportional representation should 



Adoption of the Constitution 183 

prevail. The Connecticut men immediately demanded a de- 
cision as to the make-up of the second branch. Ellsworth 
described the union as partly federal and partly national and 
demanded that this fact be recognized. The whole subject 
was referred to a committee consisting of one member 
from each State, which finally recommended that representa- 
tion in the first branch be proportional and that all revenue 
bills originate in that branch, but that each State should 
have an equal vote in the second branch. This report was 
adopted by the convention. 

The next important question related to the basis of repre- 
sentation. Having decided that representation in the first 
branch of the legislature should be proportional, The three 
the convention now had to determine whether fifths com- 
it should be proportional to population or to p"'°™^® 
wealth, and, in either case, whether slaves should be included. 
The delegates from South CaroHna favored population as 
the basis for representation and insisted that slaves should be 
counted. To this the Northern States were stoutly opposed. 

Williamson of North Carolina advocated counting three 
fifths of the slaves in taking the population, a proposition 
which had been brought forward in Congress four years 
before in connection with the apportionment of taxes. 
Gouverneur Morris moved that "taxation shall be in propor- 
tion to representation." This was a two-edged sword, for 
if the South should secure a larger representation through 
its slaves than it would otherwise be entitled to, it would 
have to pay proportionately heavier taxes. Mason amended 
Morris's motion so as to limit it to direct taxes. It was 
finally agreed that in apportioning representatives and direct 
taxes three fifths of the slaves should be counted. 

Another problem in which the slavery question figured 
was the control of commerce. The Southern States being 
exclusively agricultural were opposed to giving the general 
government unrestricted control over commerce for fear 



184 National Orsanization 



fe' 



that the Northern States would use this power to enact 
protective tariffs. As Mason said: "The Southern States 

are the minority in both Houses. Is it to be 
commerce expected that they will deUver themselves bound 
and the hand and foot to the Eastern States?" Further- 

more South CaroUna and Georgia were opposed to 
giving Congress the power to prohibit the foreign slave trade. 
Pinckney said : "South Carolina can never receive the plan 
if it prohibits the slave trade. In every proposed extension 
of the powers of Congress, that State has expressly and watch- 
fully excepted that of meddling with the importation of 
negroes." 

Both questions were referred to a committee and a com- 
promise was effected. The South Carohna and Georgia 

delegates agreed to vote for federal control over 
eff™ted°"^* foreign and interstate commerce, provided Con- 
through aid gress should be expressly prohibited from inter- 
land^vot^s^" fering with the foreign slave trade for a period of 

twenty years. Madison, Mason, and Martin 
made a valiant fight against this compromise, but when the 
vote was taken Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New 
Hampshire voted with Maryland, North Carolina, South 
Carolina, and Georgia in favor of continuing the slave 
trade ; while only New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware 
stood by Virginia in opposing it. 

Rutledge of South Carolina made this appeal: "If the 
Northern States consult their interest, they will not oppose 
the increase of slaves which will increase the commodities 
of which they will become the carriers." Ellsworth of 
Connecticut eased his conscience by this utterance : "The 
morality or wisdom of slavery are considerations belonging 
to the States themselves. What enriches a part enriches the 
whole, and the States are the best judges of their particular 
interest." Madison, on the other hand, declared : "Twenty 
years will produce all the mischief that can be apprehended 



Adoption of the Constitution 185 

from the liberty to import slaves. So long a term will be more 
dishonorable to the national character than to say nothing 
about it in the Constitution." 

One of the last problems to be solved by the convention 
was the method of electing the president. It had at first 
been decided that he should be chosen by the Con- 
gress of the United States, and that he should tleVre"^-"^ 
serve for seven years and be ineligible for re- dent and 
election. On September 4, however, a committee Section" 
to whom the question had been referred re- 
ported the plan of an electoral college. The presidential 
term was then fixed at four years and nothing was said 
about reelection. 

On Monday, September 17, the convention assembled for 
the last time and the revised draft of the Constitution was 
presented for signature. Of the seventy-three jheCon- 
delegates appointed to the convention only fifty- stitution 
five ever attended any of its sessions, and of these a^^sub- 
only thirty-nine signed the Constitution. Some mittedto 
had hurried home, while Mason, Randolph, and * ® *^*®^ 
Gerry, who remained to the last, protested against certain 
of its provisions and refused to sign. Following the instruc- 
tions of the convention Washington forwarded the Coi^stitu- 
tion to Congress with a letter, and Congress transmitted it 
to the States. 

The Constitution contained the provision that when 
ratified by the conventions of nine States it should go into 
effect between the States so ratifying it. The prompt 
people of the States were at once divided into action of 
groups of Federalists and Anti-Federalists, the pennTX^' 
former favoring, the latter opposing the new Con- vania, New 
stitution. The first convention was called in nl^^L'., 

Ijeorgia, 
Pennsylvania, but while it was debating the ques- and Con- 

tion the Delaware convention met and ratified °®<=*^*^"* 

the Constitution by a unanimous vote December 7, 1787. 

e 



186 National Organization 



fe' 



Pennsylvania followed on the 12th by a vote of 46 to 23. 
New Jersey ratified December 18 unanimously, Georgia 
January 2, 1788, also unanimously, and Connecticut January 
9 by a vote of 128 to 40. 

In Massachusetts Gerry began the fight against the Con- 
stitution by circulating Richard Henry Lee's "Letters of a 
The debate Federal Farmer" and Mason's letter explaining 
inMassa- why he refused to sign the Constitution. When 
chusetts ^j^g convention met the majority was opposed to 
ratification. The Federalist leaders were King, Gorham, 
Fisher Ames, and Bowdoin, but John Hancock and Samuel 
Adams held back and unless they could be won over there 
was no chance for ratification. Adams said when the Con- 
stitution was first shown him : "I stumble at the threshold. 
I meet with a national government, instead of a federal union 
of sovereign States." 

A letter from Washington published in the Boston papers 
at an opportune moment had great weight. In it he said : 
"I am persuaded that the Constitution or disunion is before 
us to choose from. If the first is our election, a constitutional 
door is opened for amendments, and may be adopted in a 
peaceable manner, without tumult or disorder." Hancock 
finally proposed ratification with a series of amendments. 
Adams gave his support to this method, and on February 
6, 1788, the Constitution was ratified by a vote of 187 
to 168. 

In Maryland Martin and Chase led the fight against the 
Constitution, but it was finally ratified April 26 by a vote of 
Mar land 63 to 11. In South Carolina the legislature was 
South opposed to the Constitution and there was some 

and°New difficulty in getting it to call a convention, but 
Hampshire public sentiment was favorable and when the con- 
ratify vention met the Constitution was ratified after a 

short discussion by a vote of more than two to one. When 
the New Hampshire convention met the friends of the C^on- 



Adoption of the Constitution 187 

stitution fearing that it would be rejected secured an adjourn- 
ment until June. When the convention reassembled it rati- 
fied after four days' discussion by a vote of 57 to 47. 

Nine States had now ratified the Constitution, but without 
New York and Virginia the new government could not 
prove a success. In the latter State Patrick 
Henry and Richard Henry Lee had opposed the mtheVir- 
whole plan of a federal convention and had re- ginia con- 
fused to go as delegates, while George Mason and 
Governor Randolph had refused to sign the Constitution 
after it was drafted. The Virginia convention met June 2, 
1788, and all eyes were now turned to the Old Dominion. 
Patrick Henry led the fight and brought to bear against the 
Constitution all the force of his fierj'' eloquence. He was 
ably seconded by George Mason and William Grayson. 

Madison succeeded, however, in winning to his side Gov- 
ernor Randolph, and Washington's influence, though he did 
not attend the convention, carried great weight with the 
members. Madison was also aided by the popular eloquence 
of ''Light-Horse Harry" Lee and the forceful arguments of 
John Marshall. The debate finally narrow,ed down to the 
question whether the Constitution should be ratified as it 
stood and amendments subsequently proposed, or whether 
ratification should be postponed until another federal conven- 
tion could convene and make the desired changes. The 
former alternative was finally adopted, and on June 25 the 
Constitution was ratified by a vote of 89 to 79. It was later 
learned that New Hampshire had ratified four days earlier, 
but the action of Virginia was none the less decisive, for it 
turned the scale in New York. 

The fight for the Constitution in New York had been car- 
ried on actively in the public prints. The series of papers 
afterwards collected and published in book form The fight in 
and known as The Federalist appeared during the New York 
winter of 1787-1788 in the Independent Journal, the Daily 



188 National Organization 

Advertiser, and the Packet, over the name of " PubHus. " Jay 
wrote five of these essays, Madison twenty-nine, and Hamil- 
ton fifty-one. Taken as a whole they constitute the most 
complete commentary on the Constitution and one of the 
most celebrated treatises on government ever published. 

When the New York convention met in June two thirds 
of the delegates were opposed to ratification. Hamilton, 
Jay, and Robert Livingston led the fight for the Constitu- 
tion; Lansing, Clinton, and Melancthon Smith led the 
fight against it. The vote was finally taken July 26 and stood 
30 for ratification and 27 against. 

In March, 1788, an irregular vote on the Constitution was 
taken in Rhode Island in the town meetings, but the Federal- 
ists generally refused to take part in this proce- 
isiand and dure, with the result that only 237 votes were cast 
North fQi- the Constitution, while 2708 were cast against 

refuse to it- In North Carolina the convention which was 
enter the called to consider the Constitution was controlled 
by the Anti-Federalists and decided to adjourn 
without taking action, with the hope that other States would 
do likewise, and thus compel the adoption of the necessary 
amendments. 

Six months after the new government was successfully 
organized North Carolina came into the Union, but Rhode 
Island remained out until May 29, 1790, when fearing that 
her commerce would be excluded by the tariff laws of the 
Union she reluctantly accepted the Constitution. 

In after years the nature of the Union established under 
the Constitution became the subject of violent poHtical 
Nature of controversy. The States' Rights school held 
the new that the Constitution was a compact entered into 
^^°^ by sovereign States, while the Nationalists held 

that the birth of the nation antedated the adoption of the 
Constitution, that in the very act of offering united resist- 
ance to British rule a nation came into being. The former 



Adoption of the Constitution 189 

view was universally held at the time that the Constitution 
was adopted, and it is impossible to produce a single contem- 
porary utterance explicitly claiming that the people of the 
United States regarded themselves as a single political body. 
The Constitution was adopted by the people of the several 
States acting as thirteen distinct political entities. It thus 
rested on the same authority as the constitutions of the sev- 
eral States. The men of that day believed that they were 
dividing the powers of sovereignty between the State govern- 
ments and the general government. 

The Constitution had in it one clause, however, which was 
destined in time to enable the Federal Government to assert 
successfully the superiority of its powers. The The germ of 
sixth article provides, that, "This Constitution, nationaUty 
and the laws of the United States which shall be made in 
pursuance thereof ; and all treaties made, or which shall be 
made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the 
supreme law of the land ; and the judges in every State shall 
be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of 
any State to the contrary notwithstanding." 

TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. The Defects of the Articles of Confederation: Fiske, Critical 
Period, Chaps. Ill, IV; Channing, History of the United States, 
Chaps. XIV, XV ; McLaughlin, The Confederation and the Consti- 
tution, Chap. XI. 

2. The Creation of a National Domain : Fiske, pp. 187-207 ; 
Channing, Chap. XVII ; MoLaughlin, Chap. VII. 

3. The Federal Convention : Fiske, pp. 214-229 ; J. B. McMas- 
ter. History of the People of the United States, Vol. I, pp. 390-399, 
417-423; James Schouler, History of the United States, Vol. I, 
pp. 23-38; M. Farrand, The Framing of the Constitution, Chaps. 
I, II. 

4. The Compromise between the Big States and the Little States : 
Fiske, pp. 236-255; McMasler, Vol. I, pp. 439-446; Schouler, 
Vol. I, pp. 38-41 ; Farrand, Chaps. V-VII ; McLaughlin, Chaps. 
XII-XIV. 



190 National Organization 

5. The Compromises on Slavery : Fiske, pp. 256-266 ; Mc- 
Laughlin, pp. 254-265 ; Schouler, Vol. I, pp. 41, 42 ; B. B. Munford, 
Virginia s Attitude toward Slavery and Secession, Chap. V. 

6. The Ratification of the Constitution: Fiske, pp. 306-345; 
McLaughlin, chap. VII ; Schouler, Vol. I, pp. 53-69 ; McMaster, 
Vol. I, pp. 454-499 ; C. A. Beard, Economic Interpretation of the 
Constitution, Chaps. VIII-XI ; The Federalist, written by Hamilton, 
Madison, and Jay. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE PRESIDENCY OF WASHINGTON 

On July 2, 1788, the president of Congress announced 
that nine States had ratified the new Constitution. Con- 
gress then ordered that the States should choose 

• 1 - 1 1 If TTT 1 1 • Election and 

presidential electors on the hrst Wednesday m inauguration 
January, that the electors should vote for presi- ?* Wash- 
dent on the first Wednesday in February, and 
that the new Congress should assemble in New York on the 
first Wednesday in March, which happened to be the fourth 
day of the month. Public sentiment was overwhelmingly 
in favor of Washington for president so that not even in the 
first election did the electors really exercise their right of 
choice, nor have they ever done so since. The electoral 
system as devised by the framers of the Constitution has 
always been a useless piece of machinery. 

New England was conceded the vice-presidency and the 
choice fell on John Adams. It was April 5 before a suffi- 
cient number of senators and representatives arrived to 
enable Congress to organize. On the following day the 
electoral votes were counted and messengers dispatched to 
notify Washington and Adams of their election. Adams 
reached New York April 22 and immediately took his seat 
as presiding officer over the Senate. Washington set out 
from Mount Vernon on April 16, but his progress was de- 
layed by guards of honor, street parades, receptions, and 
dinners. Finally on April 30 he was formally inaugurated 
on the portico of the City Hall of New York. 

191 



192 National Organization 

The first session of Congress was held in New York. 
From 1790 to 1800 its sessions were held in Philadelphia. 
The first '^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ government was then permanently 
session of located in the District of Columbia. Frederick 
Congress ^ Muhlenberg, of Pennsylvania, was the first 
speaker of the House of Representatives. He was author- 
ized to appoint all committees, a power which was destined 
in time to raise the speaker to a position of influence second 
to that of the president. James Madison, of Virginia, who 
was recognized as the representative of the administration 
on the floor, proposed as one of the first measures a revenue 
bill to meet the immediate demands of the government. 
The bill was modified at the demand of representatives 
from the Middle States so as to afford incidental protection 
to articles manufactured in America, and in this form passed 
the House July 4, 1789. 

Three executive departments were established by Con- 
gress at its first session : the Department of State, July 27, 
1789 ; the Department of War, August 7 ; and 
tionoTthe ^'^^ Department of the Treasury, September 2. 
first execu- The office of attorney-general was created Sep- 
tivedepart- Member 22. This officer was not intended to 

ments 

rank as a cabinet member, but the importance 
and nature of his duties soon brought him within that class, 
though the Department of Justice was not created until 
1870. 

There was no provision in law for a cabinet, but from the 
first Washington called the heads of departments into con- 
sultation on all important matters and the term cabinet 
soon came into general use. The American cabinet, how- 
ever, has never borne much resemblance to the British body 
from which it derived its name. The British cabinet is re- 
sponsible for its political acts to Parliament, while the Ameri- 
can cabinet is responsible to the president alone and Con- 
gress has never established any control over it. 



The Presidency of Washington 193 

Thomas Jefferson was appointed secretary of state by 
Washington. As he was then absent from the country 
as minister to France, John Jay, who had been jyjembers of 
in charge of foreign affairs under the Confed- the first 
eration, was continued in the office until Jeffer- ^^^''^^^ 
son assumed the duties in March, 1790. Alexander Ham- 
ilton, who as a mere youth had distinguished himself in the 
Revolution and who was still only thirty-two years of age, 
was appointed secretary of the treasury, and General Henry 
Knox, of Massachusetts, was appointed secretary of war, 
while Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, accepted the post of 
attorney-general at the modest salary of $1500. He was 
not expected to give all his time to the office. 

The Constitution provided that the judicial power of the 
United States should be vested in one Supreme Court and 
in such inferior courts as Congress might from xhejudi- 
time to time establish. There was no question clary Act of 
as to the necessity of establishing a Supreme ^'^^^ 
Court, but the Anti-FederaHsts objected to the creation of 
inferior courts and insisted that the State courts could 
attend to minor matters arising under Federal law. This 
view was, however, overruled and the act of 1789, besides 
creating a Chief Justice and five associates of the Supreme 
Court, also established four circuit and thirteen district 
courts. John Jay was appointed first Chief Justice, but so 
little were the possibilities of the new court realized that he 
later resigned the position to become governor of New York. 

One other matter of importance was disposed of at this 
session of Congress. Pledges had been made in several of 
the State conventions which ratified the Con- ^. g 
stitution that amendments embodying a bill TenAmend- 
of rights would be pui^hed through Congress °^®°*^ 
and submitted to the States as speedily as possible. Pat- 
rick Henry and other opponents of the Constitution were 
now chafing at the delay. Madison finally introduced seven- 



194 National Omanization 



&' 



teen amendments, only twelve of which were passed by Con- 
gress and only ten ratified by the necessary number of States. 
These went into effect November 3, 1791. 

Congress adjourned the last of September to meet again 
in January, and during the interval Washington made a 
_ . tour of New England. His visit was without 

Pr6si(i€nt 

Washington incident save for the question of etiquette raised 
tours the j^y John Hancock, governor of Massachusetts, 
who let it be known that he would wait for the 
president to make the first call on him. Washington took 
a different view, however, of the relative dignity of presi- 
dent and governor, and Hancock conceded the point and 
paid the first call. In the spring of 1791 the president made 
a tour of the Southern States, traveling in his own coach. 
He went as far as Savannah and the journey occupied 
three months. 

When Congress met again in January, 1790, Hamilton 
submitted the first of his carefully prepared reports on the 
Hamilton's P^^'^li^^ credit. His financial scheme as finally 
financial set forth embraced four points : the funding of 
program ^j^^ public debt, the assumption of the State 
debts incurred in the Revolution, the increase of duties on 
imports and an excise tax on spirituous liquors, and the 
estabhshment of a United States Bank. As already stated, 
the government of the Confederation had been unable to 
meet the interest on the Revolutionary debt, which now 
amounted to S54,000,000, nearly $12,000,000 of which was 
held abroad. Certificates of the domestic debt had fallen 
to twenty or twenty-five cents on the dollar. Hamilton 
now proposed to refund this debt and pay it off at par in 
order to make good the public credit. 

As soon as his plan was made known speculators began 
to buy up the certificates and they rose rapidly in value. 
Many people, among them Madison, were opposed to pay- 
ing off this debt at its face value on the ground that specu- 



The Presidency of Washington 195 

lators and not the original holders of certificates would profit 
by the measure. Hamilton contended, on the other hand, 
that the only possible way for the government to establish 
its credit for the future was to pay its obhgations in full. 
His plan was adopted and the old certificates were exchanged 
for new bonds bearing interest at six per cent. 

Another part of Hamilton's scheme was the assumption 
of the debts incurred by the States in the Revolution, 
amounting to about $25,000,000. His main pur- -ri^eag. 
pose was to strengthen the Federal government sumption of 
by winning the confidence and support of the ^*^*®^^^*s 
financial interests. Virginia was opposed to this measure, 
as she had already paid off most of her Revolutionary debt 
through the sale of western lands, and the Southern States, 
with the exception of South Carolina which still had a large 
debt, also opposed it. The New England States, on 
the other hand, favored the measure, while the Middle 
States were divided, the commercial interests favoring as- 
sumption and the agricultural interests opposing it. Madi- 
son, who had been in close association with Hamilton, 
now parted company with him and led the fight against as- 
sumption. 

Meanwhile there had developed a sharp contest over the 
location of the national capital. Some favored Philadelphia 
or Germantown and others a site on the Potomac. Location of 
Hamilton now proposed to Jefferson, who had the national 
just arrived in Philadelphia, that he would secure *^^p'^^ 
enough Northern votes for the Potomac site, if Jefferson 
would get enough Virginia votes for assumption. The 
details were readily agreed on between Hamilton and Madi- 
son at Jeffer.son's table. The capital was to remain in Phil- 
adelphia for ten years and then to be removed to a district 
ten miles square on the Potomac to be selected by President 
Washington. State debts to the amount of $18,271,787 
were ultimately paid bj'- the Federal government. 



196 National Organization 

In order to meet the ordinary expenses of the govern- 
ment and to provide for the enlarged debt Hamilton pro- 
posed an increase of duties on imports and an 

The excise 

and the excise on distilled liquors. These measures met 

Whisky ^ith strong opposition, but they were enacted into 

law March 3, 1791. The excise especially created 
great dissatisfaction among the people in the western 
counties of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, the Caro- 
linas, and Georgia. There was a still on almost every farm 
and whisky was the one commodity which these frontiers- 
men could carry over the mountains and get a ready sale for. 
They naturally regarded the excise as a special tax on them- 
selves. 

In western Pennsylvania the payment of tliis tax was 
resisted or evaded from the first. Finally in 1794 a fight oc- 
curred with one of the collectors, his house was burned by a 
mob of 600 armed men, and rioters took possession of the 
streets of Pittsburg with the intention of overawing the 
Federal garrison. Washington promptly called for 15,000 
militia from Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New 
Jersey. General Henry Lee ("Light-Horse Harry") was 
placed in command of the force and Secretary Hamilton 
accompanied him. The troops advanced with great for- 
mality and deliberation, so that by the time they reached 
Pittsburg the insurgents had dispersed. A few of the 
leaders were arrested and sent to the Federal court at Phil- 
adelphia for trial, but only two were convicted and these 
were pardoned. The Federal government had demonstrated 
its ability and determination to enforce its laws. 

The bill embodying Hamilton's plan for a Bank of the 
United States was passed February 25, 1791. The bank 
The Bank of ^as to have a capital of $10,000,000, one fifth of 
the United which was to be subscribed by the government 
states ^£ ^Yie United States. It was to act as a fiscal 

agent and depository of the government, and its notes were 



The Presidency of Washington 197 

to be receivable for all debts due the United States. The 
charter was granted for a period of twenty years. 

The bank bill encountered stout opposition and led to the 
first clear alignment of political parties. As the powers of 
Congress are enumerated in the Constitution origin of 
and do not expressly include the right to estab- Parties 
lish a bank or to charter a corporation, Jeffer- constitu- 
son and his followers declared that the bank *i°"- ^?°s® 
was unconstitutional. The Constitution con- construc- 
tains, -however, the so-called "elastic clause," tionists 
which gives Congress the power "to make all laws which 
shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution 
the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this 
Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in 
any Department or Officer thereof." Hamilton held that 
the right to establish a bank was implied, as a bank was a 
necessary agency in carrying out the financial powers ex- 
pressly conferred on the government. 

Before signing the bill Washington called for the opinions 
of the members of the cabinet. Knox upheld Hamilton, 
while Jefferson and Randolph opposed the measure. Al- 
though not clearly convinced of its constitutionality, Wash- 
ington signed the bill on the ground that where there was 
an equal division of opinion he would support the officer 
in whose department the matter arose. Hamilton, it thus 
appears, believed in a loose construction of the Constitution, 
while Jefferson believed in a strict construction of that 
instrument. 

Most of the Federalists favored a strong central govern- 
ment and became therefore loose constructionists, while 
the Anti-Federalists wished to confine the ac- Federalists 
tivities of the new government as strictly as pos- and 
sible within the limits of the expressly delegated ^^^ *"°^ 
powers. A number of former Federalists like Madison, 
however, were perfectly satisfied with the powers conferred 



198 National Organization 



t?' 



on the new government by the Constitution and therefore 
sided with the strict constructionists. The name Anti- 
Federahst was no longer apphcable after the adoption of 
the Constitution, so the new party formed by Jefferson 
became, known as the Democratic or Repubhcan party be- 
cause it stood for popular rights. When the term demo- 
crat came into disrepute on account of the excesses of the 
democrats of France during the Reign of Terror, it was dis- 
carded by Jefferson and his followers and they took the 
term Republican. 

Hamilton and his followers retained the name Federalist be- 
cause of the prestige which still clung to it. They believed 
in a government based on the upper classes and in close 
alliance with the financial and commercial interests of the 
country. The Republicans were especially strong in the 
South and West, where there were numbers of small farmers. 
The larger planters of South Carolina were mostly Feder- 
alists, but through the influence of Madison and Jefferson 
Virginia became almost solidly Repubhcan. Patrick Henry's 
old antagonism to Madison ^nd his dislike of Jefferson finally 
drove him into the Federalist party. 

John Fenno, editor of the United States Gazette, was 
patronized by Hamilton and moved with the government 
The political from New York to Philadelphia. The Repub- 
press hcans felt the need of an opposition paper and 

Madison, Burr, and Henry Lee suggested to Jefferson the 
name of Philip Freneau, a well-known poet, whom they 
had known in their student days at Princeton. Jefferson 
gave him a position as translating clerk in the Department 
of State at a salary of $250 a year, and in 1791 he established 
in Philadelphia the National Gazette. Hamilton and his 
policies were severely criticized by Freneau and even the 
president was not spared. 

In July, 1792, Hamilton contributed two anonymous 
letters to Fenno's paper charging Jefferson with giving 



The Presidency of Washington 199 

Freneau a government position in order that he might abuse 
the administration. Freneau repUed that his rival's govern- 
ment printing more than offset his own small salar3^ Rela- 
tions between Hamilton and Jefferson became greatly 
strained and Jefferson offered to resign, but Washington 
refused to accept his resignation and wrote letters to both 
Hamilton and Jefferson with a view to reconciling them. 

Washington wished to retire at the close of his first term, 
but Jefferson's party had become so strongly organized 
that the Federalist leaders feared he would defeat Reelection 
Adams, whom they had thought of nominating, of Washing- 
Hamilton, therefore, urged Washington to accept *°'^' ^"^^^ 
a second term. This was clearly the wish of the people 
generally, and Jefferson himself advised Washington to 
accede to the popular demand. He was unanimously re- 
elected. Adams, who was opposed by George Clinton for 
the vice-presidency, received 77 electoral votes to Chnton's 
50. The Republicans, however, carried the House of 
Representatives . 

From the beginning of his first administration Washing- 
ton was confronted with foreign problems of a serious char- 
acter. Great Britain still held Detroit, Mack- Foreign 
inaw. Fort Erie (Buffalo), Niagara, Oswego, a^^s 
and other forts in the Northwest which she had promised 
in the treaty of 1783 to surrender. Her excuse for not carry- 
ing out the treaty was that the United States had failed to 
pay the debts due British merchants, and to satisfy the 
claims of the loyalists. Americans claimed, on the other 
hand, that the British troops had taken away thousands of 
slaves in direct violation of the treaty. Relations were now 
further strained by the open sympathy expressed in America 
with the new French RepubUc which was soon at war with 
England. 

Meanwhile the Indians north of the Ohio River, encour- 
aged secretly by the British garrisons in the disputed forts, 



200 National Organization 



&' 



were actively resisting the advance of white settlers. In 

1789 General St. Clair was appointed governor of the 

Northwest Territory, and in October, 1791, he 

War with . 

the Indians advanced with 2000 men from Fort Washington 
north of the ^^ Cincinnati against the Indians, but he was 
driven back with heavy losses. It is said that 
when Washington learned of the disaster he flew into a vio- 
lent rage. After a tedious investigation St. Clair was acquit- 
ted, but resigned his military command. 

In 1794 Anthony Wayne, who had succeeded him, de- 
feated a large body of Indians at the battle of Fallen Timber 
on the Maumee River two miles from a British outpost. A 
year later the Indians, having learned of the signature of 
the Jay treaty and of Great Britain's intention of evacuat- 
ing the posts, signed with Wayne the treaty of Greenville, 
which established a definite boundary between the Indians 
and the whites and opened to settlers nearly all of the pres- 
ent State of Ohio. 

The treaty of 1783 fixed the southern boundary of the 

United States at the thirty-first parallel. At the same time 

both East and West Florida had been ceded by 
Spain closes t-.-- n- oi- i-ii 

the Missis- Great Britain to Spam. Spam now claimed the 

sippito whole of the British province of West Florida 

which had extended as far north as 32° 28' and 
embraced the southern half of the present States of Ala- 
bama and Mississippi. Spain also denied the right of the 
United States to the free navigation of the Mississippi River. 
This right had been granted to England in 1763 and granted 
by England to the United States in 1783. The closure of 
the river to Americans caused great dissatisfaction and ex- 
citement in Kentucky and Tennessee. 

Spain also took the Creeks and Cherokees under her pro- 
tection and denied the right of white traders to come among 
them without Spanish licenses. The settlers in Tennessee 
were troubled by Indian raids and took matters into their 



The Presidency of Washington 201 

own hands. In 1793 Sevier led a raid against the Cherokees 
as far as Rome, Georgia, and in 1794 Robertson marched 
into the Chicamauga country. These measures 
put a stop to the Indian disturbances in the Spanish 
Southwest, and in 1795 the United States and ^"^^^^^ 

' with the 

Spain came to an agreement. General Thomas Indians 
Pinckney succeeded in negotiating a treaty in 
which Spain recognized the thirty-first parallel as the bound- 
ary from the Mississippi to the Appalachicola, gave Amer- 
icans the right to navigate the Mississippi, and permitted 
them to deposit goods at New Orleans pending their trans- 
ference to ocean-going vessels. 

The most difficult problem that Washington had to face 
during his term of office was that presented by the war 
which broke out between England and France 

TliG French 

in 1793. The French Revolution had been Revolution 

regarded with sympathetic interest by the great andtheout- 
, . . . break of war 

body 01 the American people until the execution between 

of Louis XVI in January, 1793. From this time England and 

France 

on public sentiment was divided. The Fed- 
eralists condemned the course of events in France and 
shrank from all political connection with the new govern- 
ment, while Jefferson and his followers still expressed con- 
fidence in the ultimate success of the new Republic. The 
United States was embarrassed by the treaties of 1778, 
in which we guaranteed to France her possessions in the 
West Indies and promised to admit French prizes to Ameri- 
can ports in time of war. Hamilton contended that these 
treaties were no longer binding, as the government which 
had signed them had been overthrown. Jefferson, on the 
other hand, urged that the treaties were still in force and 
that the United States should five up to its obligations. 

Washington agreed with Jefferson that the treaties were 
still in force, but he held that the clause in regard to the 
West Indies did not apply to an offensive war such as France 



202 National Organization 

was waging;. He also decided that he would have to admit 
French prizes, but that American ports could not he used 

as a base for fitting out such prizes for service 
tiontfneu- against England. On April 22, 1793, he issued 
traiity, the ROW famous proclamation of neutrality, lay- 

170? ^^ ^^^ down a principle of conduct which has guided 

the policy of the United States ever since. 
Writing a hundred years later, W. E. Hall, a leading 
EngUsh authority on international law, says: "The policy 
of the United States in 1793 constitutes an epoch in the 
development of the usages of neutrality. There can be no 
doubt that it was intended and believed to give effect to the 
obligations then incumbent upon neutrals. But it repre- 
sented by far the most advanced existing opinions as to 
what those obUgations were ; and in some points it even 
went further than authoritative international custom has 
up to the present time advanced. In the main, however, 
it is identical with the standard of conduct which is now 
adopted by the community of nations." 

Two weeks before the proclamation of neutrality was 
issued "Citizen" Genet landed at Charleston, South Caro- 
Genet's ^^^^' with a commission as minister of the newly 
mission, established French Republic. He was deter- 
^^^^ mined to lead the United States into war with 

England and at once began issuing commissions to Ameri- 
can privateers. His journey northward was one continuous 
series of demonstrations. He entered Philadelphia May 16, 
escorted by thousands of people. Washington was greatly 
provoked at his conduct and received him with cold formality. 
Genet complained openly of the attitude of the president 
and expressed his determination to appeal to Congress or 
to the people. Jefferson explained to him fully the course 
which the government had decided to pursue, but in express 
violation of this understanding Genet sent out the Little 
Sarah, a prize fitted out as a privateer. Washington ex- 



The Presidency of Washington 203 



&' 



claimed, "Is the minister of the French RepubUc to set the 
acts of this government at defiance with impmiity, and then 
threaten the Executive with an appeal to the people?" At 
the request of the American minister in Paris Genet was 
recalled, but as the Robespierre faction was now in power, 
he was afraid to return to France and settled down quietly 
in New York, where he married the daughter of Governor 
Clinton and Uved to a ripe old age. 

Genet's conduct brought the country to the verge of 
war with England. In declaring their independence the 
States of the American Union sacrificed the ex- 
tensive trade with the British West Indies relations 
which as colonies they had enjoyed. In the ^^^^ 
treaty of 1783 Great Britain refused to make 
any concessions, and the loss of this trade was a serious blow 
to American commerce, which found practically every port 
on this continent closed to it. When, therefore, at the be- 
ginning of the war with England in 1793, France threw open 
to neutrals the trade with her West India colonies, American 
ships were quick to take advantage of it. Great Britain 
promptly ordered the seizure of all ships engaged in this 
trade and later included all ships carrying the property of 
French citizens. These orders were in violation of the prin- 
ciple that free ships make free goods, but England had never 
recognized that rule. 

Hundreds of American ships were seized under the most 
irritating circumstances. Jefferson recommended retaliatory 
legislation against British commerce, but as seven eighths of 
our imports were British the merchants wished to avoid a 
breach with England. The retention of the posts in the 
Northwest and the impressment of American seamen con- 
stituted other grievances and the two countries seemed on 
the verge of war, when at the instance of Pinckney, the 
American minister at London, the order with reference to 
the seizure of ships was modified so as to release the trade 



204 



National Organization 



between the United States and the French West Indies. 
Ships carrying goods from the French colonies to European 
ports were still liable to seizure. 

Meanwhile Jay was sent on a special mission to England, 
with instructions to secure the surrender of tlie posts in the 
Northwest, to arrange for the settlement of 
treaty, claims arising out of the seizure of American 

November ships, and to negotiate a commercial treaty per- 
mitting American ships to engage in trade with 
the British West Indies. After four months of negotia- 
tion a treaty was finally 
signed November 19, 
1794. It provided for 
the surrender of the posts 
in the Northwest, for a 
joint commission to settle 
the question of British 
debts and the claims for 
the seizure of American 
ships, and for determin- 
ing the boundary be- 
tween Maine and Can- 
ada. 

Article XII permitted 
American ships of not 
more than seventy tons' 
burden to trade with the 
British West Indies, pro- 
vided they did not carry 
to Europe either directly or from the United States any 
molasses, sugar, coffee, cocoa, or cotton. This arrange- 
ment raised a storm of indignation and Jay was burned 
in effigy in various parts of the country, while Haijiilton 
was stoned when he undertook to speak in his defense. 
The West India clause was stricken out by the Senate and 




John Jay. 



The Presidency of Washington 205 

the rest of the treaty ratified by a bare two-thirds vote 
June 24, 1795. 

During his first term Washington had tried to administer 
the government without recognizing the existence of polit- 
ical parties. He had called to his aid men of 
various shades of political behef. Shortly after Washing- 

the beginning of his second term Jefferson re- ton's ad- 

1 1 T-i 1 1 T-. 1 1 1 ministration 

Signed, and two years later liidmund Randolph 

withdrew under a cloud. The cabinet was almost entirely 

reconstituted and the positions filled with Federalists, but 

it was with great reluctance that Washington gave up his 

nonpartisan idea. 

At the opening of the campaign in 1796 he let it be known 

that he would not accept a third term, and later issued to 

the public his famous Farewell Address, in which Washington 

he bequeathed to his coun'trymen as a political refuses a 

legacy the policy of avoiding European entangle- ^^^ 

ments. He retired to Mount Vernon wearied and worn by 

the incessant attacks of his critics. He had again carried 

the country through a trying period and had established the 

new government on a firm and enduring basis. There had 

been a return of prosperity, the population was growing 

rapidly and extending westward, and three new States had 

been added to the Union: Vermont in 1791, Kentucky in 

1792, and Tennessee in 1796. 

TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. Organization of the New Government: McMaster, Vol. I, 
pp. 525-544; Schouler, Vol. I, pp. 70-101; Channing, Vol. IV, 
Chap. II ; J. S. Bassett, The Federalist System, Chap. I. 

2. The First Ten Amendments to the Constitution : Bassett, 
pp. 21-23 ; Schouler, Vol. I, pp. 102-104 ; Henry, Patrick Henry, 
Vol. II, pp. 409-463; Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitu- 
tion, Vol. Ill, pp. 713-755. 

3. Hamilton's Financial Program : McMaster, Vol. I, pp. 545- 
585; Schouler, Vol. I, pp. 130-142, 158-162; Channing, Vol. Ill, 



206 National Organization 

Chap. Ill; Bassett, Chap. II; H. C. Lodge, Alexander Hamilton, 
Chaps. V, VI. 

4. The Whisky Insurrection: McMaster, Vol. II, pp. 41-43, 
189-203 ; Schouler, Vol. I, pp. 275-280 ; Bassett, Chap. VII. 

5. The Origin of Political Parties : Schouler, Vol. I, pp. 171- 
178, 202-214; McMaster, Vol. II, pp. 47-58, 85-88; Bassett, 
Chap. Ill ; H. J. Ford, American Politics, Chap. VII ; Schouler, 
Thomas Jefferson, Chaps. X, XI. 

6. Indian Affairs: McMaster, Vol. I, pp. .593-604, Vol. II, pp. 
43^7, 67-72; Schouler, Vol. I, pp. 152-157; Bassett, Chaps. 
IV, V ; Roosevelt, Winning of the West, Vol. IV, Chaps. I, II. 

7. American Neutrality and the Mission of Genet : McMaster, 
Vol. II, pp. 89-141 ; Schouler, Vol. I, pp. 241-258 ; Channing, Vol. 
IV, Chap. V ; Bassett, Chap. VI. 

8. The Jay Treaty : McMaster, Vol. II, pp. 212-256 ; Schouler, 
Vol. I, pp. 289-304, 308-316 ; Bassett, Chap. VIII. 



CHAPTER XII 



FEDERALISTS AND REPUBLICANS 

When Washington announced in 1796 that he would not 
accept a third term the Federalists put forward John Adams 

and General 




Thomas Pinck- 



John Adams 
elected 



nev as candi- president, 

1796 

dates for the 
presidency and vice-presi- 
dency, while the Repub- 
licans agreed on Jefferson 
and Burr. Hamilton was 
opposed to Adams and 
suggested to some of the 
Federalist electors that 
they withhold their votes 
from Adams so as to give 
Pinckney the presidency. 
Under the method pro- 
vided by the Constitution 
there were no distinct 
ballots for vice-president, 
but each elector voted for 
two names for president, 
and the one receiving the highest number of votes became 
president and the one receiving the next highest became 
vice-president. 

Adams's friends learned of Hamilton's scheme, however, 
and withheld a number of votes from Pinckney, with the 
result that Adams received 71 votes, Pinckney 59, andJef- 

207 



John Adams. 



208 National Organization 



&' 



ferson 68. Thus Adams became president and Jefferson, 
his opponent, vice-president. Adams was a man of high 
character and a sincere patriot, with a wide experience in 
pubHc affairs both at home and abroad, but he was cold, 
tactless, and lacking in many of the essential elements of 
poUtical leadership. 

The Jay treaty had caused deep offense in France and 
greatly embarrassed Monroe, who had assured the French 
Strained government that no such terms would be ac- 
reiations cepted. Shortly before the close of Washington's 
wit ranee a(^niinistration Monroe was recalled and C. C 
Pincloiey appointed to succeed him. The French govern- 
ment, not liking the attitude of the Federalists, refused to 
receive Pinckney and finally ordered him to leave France. 
Many of the Federalists now demanded war, but Adams and 
Hamilton realized that the country was unprepared, while 
the Republicans insisted that there was no ground for war, 
and that strained relations were due to the mismanagement 
of the Federalists. 

Adams was determined if possible to reestablish diplo- 
matic intercourse, and in the autumn of 1797 sent a com- 
The X, Y, z mission to France consisting of C. C. Pinckney, 
affair Jq^^ Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry. When the 

commissioners arrived in Paris Talleyrand, who was foreign 
minister, delayed receiving them and when they grew im- 
patient at their treatment they were informed through 
secret agents, designated in the dispatches which were sent 
to the president as X, Y, Z, that money was what was 
wanted and that if they would pay substantial sums to 
Talleyrand and his associates, they would be recognized and 
their business attended to. The spirit of Pinckney's em- 
phatic reply, "No, no, no, not a sixpence," was caught by 
some happy phrase-maker in America, who gave currency to 
it in the form, "Millions for defense, but not a cent for 
tribute." This phrase became the watchword of the day. 



Federalists and Republicans 209 

As soon as the "X, Y, Z" dispatches were received the 
president announced to Congress that he would never send 
another minister to France without assurances 
that he would be "received, respected, and forTa'r^Inr 
honored as the representative of a great, free, naval re- 
powerful, and independent nation." The publi- j^Qg^'go 
cation of the dispatches created intense feeling 
and the recommendations of the president were promptly 
enacted into law by Congress. 

The Department of the Navy was created, the construc- 
tion of a large number of ships was ordered, the seizure of 
French ships was authorized, the treaties of 1778 were 
repealed, and the organization of an army of 10,000 men 
was begun. Washington was appointed to the chief com- 
mand and accepted on condition that Hamilton be ap- 
pointed second in command. As the United States could 
not fight France on land, Hamilton wished to cooperate 
with England in an attack on the colonies of Spain, France's 
ally. He proposed to annex Florida and New Orleans to 
the United States and to help to establish the independence 
of Spanish America. 

Adams, however, did not favor this scheme, and hostilities 
were confined to the sea. In a little over two years United 
States ships captured over eighty French vessels, most of 
them merchantmen or privateers, though among them were 
a few ships of the French navy, such as Ulnsurgente, which 
was captured by Captain Truxtun of the Constellation after 
a regular engagement lasting over an hour. Notwithstand- 
ing these sea fights neither country declared war. Mean- 
while Napoleon had come into power, and in 1800 he author- 
ized a treaty which reestablished diplomatic relations and 
adjusted some of the differences. 

In the midst of the preparations for war with France 
the Federalists took an unwise advantage of their temporary 
popularity by attempting to crush out all opposition on the 



210 National Organization 

part of the Republicans. In June, 1798, Congress passed 
the Ahen Act, which gave the president power to expel 
The Alien from the country all aliens whom he considered 
and Sedition dangerous to the peace and safety of the United 
*^ ^' ^'^^ States, or who he had reason to think were 
concerned in any treasonable machinations against the 
government. 

Two weeks later the Sedition Act was passed, imposing a 
heavy fine and imprisonment on any one who should conspire 
to oppose any measure of the government, or who should 
write or publish any false, scandalous, or malicious writing 
against the government, either house of Congress, or the 
president of the United States, with intent to defame or 
bring them into chsrepute. Under this act some ten editors 
were convicted, fined, and imprisoned. 

It was soon evident that the Federalists had gone too far, 
and Jefferson prepared a set of resolutions, protesting against 
the Alien and Sedition Acts, which were sub- 
tucky and mitted to some of his friends in the Kentucky leg- 
Virginia islature and passed by that body November 16, 
0^1708°°^ 1798. After defining the Constitution as a com- 
pact between sovereign States and the powers of 
Congress as delegated and limited, the resolutions declared, 
"that whensover the general government assumes undele- 
gated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no 
force." In conclusion the resolutions appealed to the other 
States to unite with Kentucky in requesting the repeal of 
the objectionable acts at the next session of Congress. 

Jefferson's resolutions were revised by Madison and intro- 
duced in the Virginia legislature by John Taylor. These 
resolutions, which were passed December 24, 1798, were 
more moderate than those of Kentucky, but they expounded 
with equal clearness the compact theory of government. 
The appeal of Virginia and Kentucky met with an unfavor- 
able response from all the Northern States. While these 



Federalists and Republicans 211 

replies denied that an individual State could pass judgment 
on the extent of the powers granted to Congress and pointed 
to the Supreme Court as the constitutional arbiter of that 
question, none of them took exception to the view that the 
Constitution was a compact. As theAHen and Sedition Acts 
were to expire by limitation before the close of Adams's admin- 
istration, no further action was taken by the Republicans. 

The Federalists had been successful in the congressional 
elections of 1798 and they fully expected to reelect Adams 
in 1800, but their party was badly divided be- 
tween the Adams and Hamilton factions and dentiai cam- 
there was a strong popular reaction against many paignof 
of their policies. Jefferson was again the candi- 
date of the Repubhcans and Aaron Burr was selected for 
the vice-presidency. The latter had gained control of New 
York and during the campaign he caused serious embarrass- 
ment to the FederaUsts by securing and pubhshing a circular 
letter which Hamilton had written to his poHtical friends 
condemning Adams in strong terms. 

When the electors were chosen it was found that Jeffer- 
son and Burr each had 73 votes, Adams, 65, and C. C. Pinck- 
ney, the Federalist candidate for vice-president, 64. As 
there was no choice the House of Representatives, which had 
a Federalist majority, had to choose between Jefferson and 
Burr. Some of the Federalists now planned to play a trick 
on the Republicans by making Burr president and Jefferson 
vice-president, but Hamilton considered Burr, who was his 
rival both in New York pohtics and at the bar, a danger- 
ous man and preferred Jefferson as the lesser of two evils. 
After thirty-six ballots Jefferson was finally chosen. As a 
result of this contest the Constitution was modified by the 
Twelfth Amendment, which provided that thereafter the 
electors should vote for president and vice-president on 
separate ballots. This arnendment became effective Sep- 
tember 25, 1804. 



212 



National Organization 



The election of Jefferson brought about a complete revo- 
lution in government and politics. It represented the 
TheRepub- ^^'iumph of democracy over the efforts of the 
licanrevoiu- Federalists to keep the control of affairs in the 
tionofiSoo i^ands of the wealthier classes. Republican 
simplicity was to take the place of the grave formality and 

old-world ceremony with which 
the Federalists had tried to hedge 
in the executive. 

The newly laid out city of 
Washington, to which the capital 
had recently been moved, afforded 
an excellent setting for the studied 
simplicity of the first inaugura- 
tion held there. A muddy road, 
skirted by a few straggling houses, 
the future Pennsylvania Avenue, 
connected the White House and 
the Capitol. According to con- 
temporary accounts Jefferson 
walked from his boarding house 
to the Capitol, escorted by a 
company of militia from Charlottesville, took the oath 
of office, and defivered his carefully worded inaugural 
address. 

The new president was a man of marked individuahty. 
With the enthusiasm of the idealist he combined in large 
measure the shrewdness of the practical politician. With 
few of the gifts of the public speaker, he was in private con- 
versation convincing and persuasive, and no president ever 
held more complete sway over his associates or over Congress. 
His intellectual versatility was remarkable. Little that 
was worthy of note in science or invention, or in the field of 
reUgious, social, or political philosophy, escaped the range 
of his keen intellect. As a writer he had no equal in America, 




Thomas Jefferson. 



Federalists and Republicans 213 

and to the present day the writings of no other American 
statesman have been so widely quoted. 

Jefferson beUeved in an economical administration of 
the government and one of his first tasks was to cut off all 
unnecessary expenditures. His secretary of the 
treasury, Albert Gallatin, was one of the ablest expe^'di-'^° 
financiers who ever held that office, and his ad- turesandof 
ministration was surprisingly successful. Under ^g^^^ ^°°^ 
the Federalists the national debt had increased 
to about $80,000,000. By rigid economy, which fell most 
heavily on the army and navy, and with the aid of increased 
revenues, Gallatin managed to pay off large portions of the 
debt and to show each year a substantial surplus in the 
treasury. Notwithstanding the $15,000,000 of bonds issued 
for the payment of Louisiana, by the close of 1807 the debt 
had been reduced to $69,500,000. 

The question of patronage is always a difficult problem 
for a new administration and especially so when there is an 
entire change of party. Adams had not only The civil 
confined his appointments strictly to Federalists, service 
but he had spent the last hours of his administration in 
appointing Federalists to new offices created by Congress 
during the last days of its final session. A judiciary act 
was hurried through creating a number of new Federal courts 
and John Marshall, the secretary of state, and President 
Adams were engaged in making out and signing commissions 
for the new judges, attorneys, and marshals imtil a late hour 
of the night preceding Jefferson's inauguration. 

Marshall did not have time to deliver the commissions 
and left them in his office to be forwarded by his successor, 
James Madison, but Jefferson took the responsibility of 
withholding the commissions for these "midnight appoint- 
ments" in spite of the protests of the new judges that they 
had been confirmed by the Senate and could not be consti- 
tutionally deprived of their positions except by impeachment. 



214 National Organization 

Jefferson did not remove Federalist officeholders except 
where charges of incompetence or partisanship were made, 
but when vacancies occurred he appointed Republicans to 
fill them, and announced that he would continue this policy 
until the pul:)lic offices were more evenly divided between 
Federalists and Republicans. 

Jefferson not only withheld the commissions from the 
newly appointed Federal judges, but he got Congress to 
repeal the act establishing the new courts. In 
the judi- this he was clearly right, for it was more than 
ciaryAct ^^If a century before it was found necessary to 
peachment increase the number of Federal courts. The 
of Pickering judiciary, filled with Federalists appointed for 
life, was nevertheless a thorn in Jefferson's 
side. It was the one branch of the government which 
had not been affected by the revolution of 1800. John 
Marshall, the leading Federalist of Virginia, had just 
been appointed Chief Justice by Adams, and on every 
debatable constitutional question his views were opposed 
to Jefferson's. 

The Republicans passed an act limiting the Supreme Court 
to one term annually, and a little later instituted impeach- 
ment proceedings against two judges. The first case was 
that of Judge Pickering of New Hampshire, who was tried 
before the Senate in March, 1804. He was found guilty 
of misconduct on the bench, due to either drunkenness or 
insanity, and was removed from office. A little later pro- 
ceedings were instituted against Samuel Chase of Maryland, 
one of the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
who in a political harangue to the grand jury at Baltimore 
declared that the government was sinking into a mobocracy. 
John Randolph, who conducted the impeachment, managed 
the case badly and Chase was acquitted, but henceforth 
Federal judges conducted themselves with greater circum- 
spection. 



Federalists and Republicans 215 

Jefferson was opposed to a large navy and in order to 
reduce expenditures he proposed to keep the larger ships 
lying idle in the eastern branch of the Potomac, ^hewar 
but he was soon compelled to send a squadron to with Tripoli, 
the Mediterranean. The Barbary powers, as ^80^-^804 
Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli were called, had long 
been in the hal)it of levying tribute on the commerce of the 
Mediterranean, and the powers of Europe had tamely ac- 
quiesced. The United States had been compelled to do 
likewise and was at this time paying an annual sum of 
$83,000 to the ruler of Tripoli. This did not satisfy him, 
however, as he complained that the rulers of the other 
Barbary states were receiving relatively more. In May, 
1801, he cut down the flagstaff over the American consulate 
at Tripoli. 

Meanwhile Commodore Richard Dale had been sent to 
the Mediterranean with instructions to dismantle any cor- 
sair which interfered with American commerce. In August 
one of his ships overhauled a Tripolitan cruiser, threw her 
guns into the sea and allowed her to proceed home. He 
also visited Algiers and threatened dire punishment in case 
of further interference with American commerce. 

In 1803 Commodore Edward Preble was sent out with 
a fleet, and one of his ships, the Philadelphia, ran aground 
at the entrance of the harbor of Tripoli. She ^j^^ ^^^^ ^^ 
was boarded by the enemy, and Captain Bain- the PhUa- 
bridge and his crew were taken prisoners. Later ^^ '" 
the Philadelphia was floated and taken into the harbor. 
Lieutenant Stephen Decatur entered the harbor in the 
Intrepid with a crew of seventy-five men, boarded the 
Philadelphia, fired her with combustibles which he had 
brought with him, and made his escape amidst a storm of 
shot from the fort and the ships in the harbor. In 1804 
Preble bombarded Tripoli and made the Pacha promise not 
to demand any more tribute. The Barbary states did not 



216 National Organization 



to' 



renew their depredations on American commerce until the 
War of 1812. 

One of Napoleon's dreams was the reestablishment of a 
French empire in America. By the secret treaty of San Ilde- 
Napoieon fonso, signed October 1, 1800, he had forced Spain 
acquires ^o agree to Cede Louisiana back to France. The 
from Spain, terms of the treaty were to be kept secret until 
i8oo,and Napoleon was ready to take over the province, 
therecon- hut within six months Jefferson heard rumors of 
quest of the cession. 

Domingo, During the interval of peace with England 

i8o2 following the treaty of Amiens in 1801, Napoleon 

turned his attention to America and as a preliminary step 
to reestablishing the French power in that quarter he under- 
took the resubjugation of the French colony of Santo Do- 
mingo. Toussaint L'Ouverture, a full-blooded negro, 
dubbed by Napoleon the ''gilded African" and by others 
the "Black Napoleon," had revolutionized that colony in 
1795 and had since successfully defied the authority of 
France. Pie was now imitating step by step the military 
despotism which the First Consul was establishing in France. 
In January, 1802, Napoleon's brother-in-law. General Leclerc, 
landed with an army of 10,000 men and undertook the re- 
conquest of the colony. Half a million negroes opposed the 
French and yellow fever also attacked them. General 
Leclerc and hundreds of his soldiers died and the enterprise 

had to be abandoned, 
opposes'^ Meanwhile the Spanish governor of Louisiana 

French oc- had withdrawn the right of deposit at New Or- 
Loutsiana leans, and excitement ran high in Tennessee and 
and starts Kentucky. Jefferson instructed Robert R. Liv- 
foTpurchase ingston, his representative at Paris, to open 
of New negotiations for the purchase of New Orleans and 

and^West West Florida, stating that the cession of New 
Florida Orleans to a powerful nation like France would 



Federalists and Republicans 217 

inevitably lead to friction and conflict, and adding that 
from the day France takes possession "we must marry 
ourselves to the British fleet and nation." In Decem- 
ber, 1802, Jefferson asked Congress for an appropriation, 
and $2,000,000 was promptly given him "to defray any 
expenses in relation to the intercourse between the United 
States and foreign nations." James Monroe was imme- 
diately appointed minister extraordinary to France and 
Spain and sent to Paris to join Livingston. Jefferson also 
informed the British minister that the United States would 
never surrender its right to the free navigation of the Missis- 
sippi, that if Monroe was not successful at Paris he might have 
to go to London, and that if the United States were compelled 
to resort to the sword they would throw away the scabl^ard. 

The failure of the expedition to Santo Domingo and the 
prospect of an early renewal of the war with England now 
made Napoleon as eager to get rid of Louisiana Napoleon 
as he had been a few months before to acquire it. suddenly 
He came to the conclusion that the best thing the whole of 
to do with the province was to give it to the Louisiana to 
United States, so as to make that country a seri- states, 
ous rival of Great Britain. Livingston, who had ^prU, 1803 
been negotiating without success for weeks for the purchase 
of New Orleans and West Florida, was greatly surprised 
when on April 11, 1803, Talleyrand suddenly asked him 
whether the United States wished to have the wdiole of 
Louisiana. He replied that while the United States wanted 
only West Florida and New Orleans, he would think the 
matter over and consult Monroe, who was expected in Paris 
in a few days. Monroe arrived the following day and the 
terms of the cession were speedily agreed upon. 

The purchase of over 900,000 square miles of land, a 
territory equal in extent to the original area of the United 
States, without the knowledge or authorization of the pres- 
ident, was the most serious responsibility ever assumed by 



218 National Organization 



&' 



any two American diplomats, but Livingston and Monroe 
rose nobly to the occasion. Marbois, the French minister 
who conducted the final negotiations, proposed as the pur- 
chase price 120,000,000 francs. Napoleon had authorized 
him to sell for 50,000,000. The sum finally agreed on was 
80,000,000 francs, or $15,000,000. Of this sum 60,000,000 
francs were to be paid to France and 20,000,000 to be dis- 
tributed by the United States to American citizens mIio had 
claims against France. 

When Jefferson received the dispatches informing him 
of the unexpected turn the negotiations had taken, he was 
quick to grasp the immense importance of the 
of the opportunity which had come to the United States, 

Louisiana ]jut he was also embarrassed by the fact that 
there was no clause in the Constitution author- 
izing the acquisition of territory. As he was a strict con- 
structionist he determined to secure the passage of an amend- 
ment expressly authorizing the purchase, but on being urged 
by Livingston to close the transaction as soon as possible 
lest Napoleon should change his mind, he abandoned the 
idea of an amendment and sent the treaty to Congress, ask- 
ing the Senate for its prompt ratification and the House for 
the necessary appropriation. It was favorably acted upon 
by both bodies, the principal opposition coming from the 
New England Federalists. 

The treaty did not define the boundaries of the ceded 
territory, but simply described it in the language of the 
Boundaries treaty of San Ildefonso as "the colony or province 
of Louisiana Qf Louisiana, with the same extent that it now has 
in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed 
it." The old French province of Louisiana had included 
West Florida and the Spanish province had included Texas. 
Did the United States acquire a valid title to both these 
territories? This question perplexed the public men of that 
day and it has perplexed the historians ever since. 



Federalists and Republicans 



219 



The French inhabitants of West Florida wished to come 
in as part of Louisiana, and in 1810 they drove the Spanish 
garrison from Baton Rouge, and President Madison annexed 
the territory west of Pearl River to Louisiana. Three years 
later he ordered General Wilkinson to occupy the Mobile 
district. At the time that these events took place the King 




West Florida Controversy, 1783-1819. 

I. Territory added to West Florida by British proclamation of 1767 ; in 
dispute between United States and Spain, 1783-1795. 

II. Claimed by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase ; 
occupied in 1810; incorporated in State of Louisiana in 1812. 

III. Claimed by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase ; 
occupied in 1811 ; incorporated with Mississippi Territfiry in 1812. 

IV. Claimed by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase ; 
occupied in 1813. 

V. Invaded by Jackson in 1814 and in 1818; ceded with rest of Florida 
by the treaty of 1819. 



of Spain was a prisoner in France, and Napoleon's brother 
Joseph, who occupied the throne, was not recognized by the 
United States, so that there was no Spanish minister in the 
United States with whom President Madison could negotiate. 
The boundaries of Louisiana were finally adjusted in the 
Florida treaty of 1819. 

Wishing to learn something about the western and northern 
limits of the vast region which he had acquired, President 
Jefferson sent out an exploring party of forty-five men under 



220 National Organization 

the command of his private secretary, Meriwether Lewis, and 
Wilham Clark, a younger brother of the more famous George 
Rogers Clark. They left St. Louis in May, 1804, 
of Lewis and and proceeding with difficulty up the Missouri 
Clark, 1804- River spent the first winter in camp at Mandan, 
near the present site of Bismarck, North Dakota, 
Setting out again as early as the season would permit, they 
reached the falls of the Missouri, where they left their boats and 
heavier supplies, and after great suffering and privation they 
finally succeeded in crossing the continental divide and made 
their way down the Columbia River to the Pacific, which they 
sighted November 7, 1805. Failing to meet any of the trading 
vessels that annually visited this coast, they spent the winter 
at the mouth of the Columbia and in March started on the re- 
turn journey. The}^ arrived at St. Louis in September, 1806. 

This was the first recorded journey ever made across the 
continent, and the expedition was the basis of our later 
claim to the Oregon country. The journal of Lewis and 
Clark is one of the most fascinating records of adventure 
ever published. Before the return of Lewis and Clark 
Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike set out on a similar 
expedition to the Southwest. He explored the mountains 
of Colorado and marched south to the Rio Grande, where 
he fell into the hands of the Spaniards, but was escorted to 
the American frontier and released. 

Jefferson's first administration was an unqualified success 
and met with such widespread approbation that he was 
Reelection reelected with little opposition. The Federalist 
of Jefferson, candidates, C. C. Pinckney and Rufus King, re- 
^ °^ ceived only 14 electoral votes, while Jefferson 

and George Clinton received 162. But Jefferson's triumphs 
were over. His second administration was clouded by fac- 
tional fights in his own party and by outrageous depredations 
on American commerce by both England and France, which 
he was unable to prevent or to avenge. 



~^w^rras 




Federalists and Republicans 



221 



In 1800 the Republicans had been united, but now the 
breach between John Randolph and Madison caused Jeffer- 
son much uneasiness. Randolph had begun his open attack 
on Madison in 1803 when he opposed a bill advocated by 
the latter, which provided for the payment of the Yazoo 
claims. Before surrendering to the Federal government 
her claims to Mississippi, 
Georgia had made con- 
flicting grants of lands on 
the Yazoo, and some of 
the claimants now tried 
to get Congress to com- 
pensate them. Randolph, 
who was now at the 
height . of his power, 
poured forth the vitriol 
of his wrath against 
Madison and other ad- 
vocates of the Yazoo bill, 
and for years prevented 
its passage. Madison was, 
however, backed by Presi- 
dent Jefferson. The po- 
litical result was that 
Randolph's friend Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina, 
was defeated for the speakership, which he had held for 
years, and Randolph was removed from the chairmanship 
of the committee on ways and means. 

In July, 1804, Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a 
duel. Already discredited by the Republican party, he was 
now generally regarded with abhorrence and his The Bun- 
political future seemed ruined. Returning to conspiracy, 
Washington he continued to preside over the ^ ° 
Senate until the expiration of his term March 4, 1805, after 
which he traveled extensively through the West. 




Robert Fulton. 



222 National Organization 

The following year Burr began collecting men and sup- 
plies on an island in the Ohio River owned by an eccentric 
Irishman named Blennerhassett, and later proceeded down 
the Mississippi with an armed expedition. What his real 
purpose was has never been satisfactorily explained. To 
many of his supporters in the West he represented it as an 
attack on Mexico ; to British and Spanish officials he de- 
clared his intention of wresting Louisiana from the Union 
and organizing a new government in the Southwest, but 
neither of these powers would give him the aid he solicited. 
At Natchez the expedition was stopped by the commander 
of the garrison and Burr was later tried for treason before 
the United States Circuit Court sitting at Richmond. 
Chief Justice Marshall presided at the trial and John Ran- 
dolph was foreman of the jury. In spite of Jefferson's 
efforts to secure a conviction Burr was acquitted. Burr 
lived abroad for several years, and then returned to New 
York, where he died in obscurity in 1836. 

TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. The Breach with France : Woodrow Wilson, History of the 
American People, Vol. Ill, pp. 145-lij2 ; Sehouler, Vol. I, pp. 351- 
389; MeMaster, Vol. II, pp. 367-388; Channing, Vol. IV, pp. 
181-209; Bassett, Chaps. XV, XVI; E. S. Maclay, FHstory of the 
Navy, Vol. I, pp. 155-213 ; A. J. Beveridge, Life of John Marshall, 
Vol. II, Chaps. VI-VIII. 

2. The Alien and Sedition Acts and the Virginia and Kentucky 
Resolutions: MeMaster, Vol. II, pp. 389-403, 418-427; Sehouler, 
Vol. 1, pp. 392^25; Wilson, Vol. Ill, pp. 153-158; Channing, 
Vol. IV, pp. 219-229; Bassett, Chaps. XVII, XVIII. 

3. Thomas Jefferson and the Republican Revolution : Channing, 
Vol. IV, Chap. IX; Wilson, Vol. Ill, pp. 161-177; Sehouler, 
Thomas Jefferson; John Sharp Williams, Thomas Jefferson. 

4. The War with Tripoli: MeMaster, Vol. II, pp. 588-602; 
Channing, Jeffersonian System, Chap. Ill ; Maclay, History of 
the Navy, Vol. I, pp. 214-302. 

5. The Louisiana Purchase : Channing, Jeffersonian System, 



Federalists and Republicans 223 

Chap. V, Hislonj of the United States, Vol. IV, Chap. XI ; McMas- 
ter, Vol. II, pp. 621-633; Henry Adams, History of the United 
States, Vol. I. 

6. The Lewis and Clark Expedition : Channing, Jeffersonian 
System, Chap. VII; McMaster, Vol. II, pp. 631-635; Roosevelt, 
Winning of the West, Vol. IV, Chap. VII ; Journals of Lewis and 
Clark, editions by Elliott Coues and R. G. Thwaites. 

7. The Burr Conspiracy : Channing, Jeffersonian System, Chap. 
XII, History of the United States, Vol. IV, pp. 335-344; W. F. Mc- 
Caleb, The Aaron Burr Conspiracy ; Adams, Vol. II, Chap. XVII, 
Vol. Ill, Chaps. X-XIV, XIX. 



CHAPTER XIII 
THE STRUGGLE FOR NEUTRAL RIGHTS 

England and France went to war in 1793 and hostilities 
continued, except for a brief period following the peace of 
The rule of Amiens, until 1815. In this contest the majority 
^7s6 of the powers of Europe were involved the greater 

part of the time on one side or the other, so that upon the 
United States mainly devolved the task of upholding neutral 
rights. Early in the struggle France opened her West 
Indian ports to American vessels. This action was in con- 
flict with the so-called "Rule of 1756," which had been an- 
nounced by England during the Seven Years' War, and 
which was, in effect, that when a country closed its colonial 
ports to foreign vessels in time of peace it could not open 
them to neutral commerce when engaged in war. 

Shortly after the outbreak of hostilities in 1793 England 
again announced her intention of enforcing this rule. Ameri- 
can ships, however, devised a means of evading it. They 
adopted the practice of carrying the products of the French, 
Spanish, and Dutch West Indies to a United States port, 
unloading the cargo, paying the duties, taking out new clear- 
ance papers, and reshipping to a European port. When 
several of the first ships engaged in this practice were cap- 
tured and taken before the English admiralty courts they 
were released, but after the renewal of the war in 1803 the 
British government determined to deal more strictly with 
the question of neutral commerce and the admiralty courts 
ruled accordingly. In the case of the Essex July, 1805, 
Lord Stowell held that if the products of the French West 
Indies were shipped to the United States with the intention 

224 



Struggle for Neutral Rights 225 

of being immediately reshipped to Europe, the cargo was 
liable to seizure. This rule became known as the doctrine of 
continuous voyage, which in a modified form became of great 
importance in the American Civil War, in the Boer War, 
and in the Great European War, which began in 1914. 

In 1806 England declared a blockade of the coast of Europe 
from the River Elbe to Brest, to be strictly enforced, how- 
ever, only between Ostend and Havre. In No- ^^5^^^ 
vember Napoleon issued the famous BerUn decrees and 
Decree, declaring the British Isles in a state of o"de^rs in 
blockade. This was purely a fictitious or paper Council, 
blockade, since Napoleon's naval forces had been ^^°^~^8°7 
completely crushed at the battle of Trafalgar and an actual 
blockade of England was utterly absurd. 

In January, 1807, the British government retaliated by 
an Order in Council which prohibited the coasting trade 
between ports under the control of France. A later order 
issued in November of the same year declared an absolute 
blockade of all European ports from which British ships 
were excluded. In December Napoleon issued the Milan 
Decree by which every ship which submitted to British search 
or which touched at a British port was ordered to be seized. 

These decrees and orders were directed mainly at the 
commerce of the United States. An American ship found 
it difficult to reach a European port without submitting to 
British search. If, on the other hand, it stopped at a British 
port and took on British goods, the only condition on which 
England would allow it to proceed, it rendered itself liable 
to seizure as soon as it reached a European port. 

Instead of stationing her ships before the ports of Europe 
and maintaining an actual blockade, England found it easier 
to station them outside of the principal American sg^j-^ij ^ j 
ports and search American vessels as they started impress- 
on their voyages. Thus scores of American ships ™^°* 
were searched and seized within sight of their own shores. 



226 • National Organization 



&' 



Incidentally the searching officers were instructed to 
inspect the crews of American merchant vessels and seize 
any deserters from the British navy or any British-born sub- 
jects whom they might find aboard. England held the doc- 
trine, once a British subject always a British subject, and 
denied absolutely the right of expatriation. Many British 
born subjects who had become naturalized in the United 
States were thus seized and forced to serve in the British navy.. 

But this was not the worst feature of the practice. As 
it was difficult to distinguish between an Englishman and 
an American, and as the British officers were not over- 
scrupulous when they were short of seamen, they impressed 
hundreds of native-born Americans into the British navy. 
Discipline in that service was very severe, flogging still 
existed, and there were many desertions. Deserters fre- 
quently took service on American merchant vessels and occa- 
sionally on American warships. 

At the beginning of the War of 1812 there were on file 
in the State Department 6257 cases of impressed seamen 
who claimed to be Americans. Lord Castle- 
impress- reagh stated on the floor of the House of Com- 
ments; mons that in January, 1811, there were 3300 men 
feeUng claiming to be American citizens serving in the 
against British navy. This was obviously a conserva- 
tive statement. When the War of 1812 began 
the British Admiralty Report shows that 2548 impressed 
American seamen were imprisoned for refusing to serve 
against their country. The total number of impressments 
is estimated by Roosevelt in his Naval War of 1812 at 20,000. 

Napoleon's outrages on our commerce were as great as 
England's, but the British navy showed greater activity, 
and the impressment of American seamen in sight of our 
coasts brought the question nearer home and aroused the 
people to an intensity of feeling against England which 
it was difficult to restrain. 



Struggle for Neutral Rights 227 

The depths of our humihation were sounded in 1807. 
On June 22 the United States frigate Chesapeake left Norfolk 
for a cruise to the Mediterranean with four de- 
serters from the British navy aboard. Three of l^akJ"-""' 
these were native Americans, and the fact that Leopard 
they had deserted from the British navy was jg^"""**'^' 
known to the officers. The fourth had enlisted 
under an assumed name and turned out to be a British sub- 
ject. As the Chesapeake was proceeding towards the Capes 
the British war vessel Leopard approached and fired a gun 
as a signal that she wished to communicate with the ship. 
Her captain said that he had dispatches and sent British 
officers aboard. The dispatches were orders from his com- 
manding officer to search the Chesapeake for deserters. 

The American commander, Commodore James Barron, 
refused to allow his ship to be searched and, as he had not 
called his men to quarters, tried to gain time, but before 
the guns could be manned the Leopard fired three broadsides 
into the Chesapeake. Barron hauled down his flag, where- 
upon the British boarded the ship, mustered the crew, and 
seized the four deserters, but refused to receive the surrender 
of the ship. Barron was later tried by court-martial and sus- 
pended for five years without pay for neglect of duty in fail- 
ing to call his men to quarters when the Leopard approached. 

President Jefferson at once issued a proclamation closing 
American ports to British warships and forbidding the fur- 
nishing of supphes to them. He also called a 
special session of Congress. Meanwhile Monroe bargoAct, 
and William Pinckney had signed an agreement December 
with the British government. This treaty failed ^^' ^ °^ 
to settle the impressment controversy and was go thoroughly 
unsatisfactory to Jefferson that he did not submit it to the 
Senate. 

The only course open to the United States was war or 
commercial restriction. Jefferson knew that our navy was 



228 



National Omanization 







-..AA/- 



'/? 



r^-^L^JL. 



OaxV^^ 



^:p:t^du^ err cuM. f 3./ ^^^■^^<>^ 

*" ' f ' J 









e^-dcn^-- ^^U'^4v it^l-^.^, n^'^l ^^.Jw^'Z* ^ i^^v^ori 
■/ fi^ ...-^.>«^ ^.''-' .^ ;^/tU /)..^» >*-v^^/<-'^'->'^^• 



.\f€lruXj. 






Facsimile of Inscription Written by Jefferson for His Tombstone. 

utterly unable to cope with that of Great Britain, and fur- 
thermore, he had an innate aversion to war. He, therefore, 
recommended to Congress that an embargo be laid on 
American commerce, maintaining that it was better to keep 
American ships at home than to send them out with the 



Struggle for Neutral Rights 229. 

certainty of capture. The Embargo Act was promptly 
passed December 22, 1807, prohibiting absolutely the 
departure of American ships for foreign ports. It was 
thought that this act would compel England and France to 
modify their orders and decrees. 

The Embargo Act raised a storm of opposition in New 
Englantl, where it was practically nullified, and 
hence produced little effect on either France or to the em- 
England. Shipowners preferred to assume the bargoand 
risk of sending their ships abroad rather than to NewEng- 

see them rot in port, and when a ship did elude ^^^^ 

Federalism 
capture the profits oi the voyage were great. 

In the presidential election of 1808 Madison, who was 
Jefferson's choice for the succession, received 122 electoral 
votes, and C. C. Pinckney, the Federalist candi- 
date, 47. The Republican majority in Congress Madison to 
was, however, greatly reduced, for the embargo t^epresi- 
had made New England almost solidly Federalist 
again. John Quincy Adams supported Jefferson's embargo 
policy, and as a result lost his seat in the United States Senate. 
He now allied himself with his father's old enemies, the 
Republicans, and soon gained recognition as one of their 
party leaders. 

After the election Jefferson and Madison could no longer 
control the Republican majority in Congress, and shortly 
before the close of Jefferson's term an act was j^ . - 
passed repealing the embargo, the repeal to take the embargo 
effect March 15, 1809. In its place the Non- o?fheN?n-^ 
intercourse Act was passed, prohibiting commer- intercourse 
cial intercourse with Great Britain and France, *^'' ^ ^^ 
but leaving American ships free to sail to other ports, and 
authorizing the president to reestablish commercial relations 
with whichever of the two nations should first suspend or 
repeal its orders or decrees. 

Before the close of Jefferson's administration a new 



230 



National Organization 



Diplomatic 
negotiations 
with Eng- 
land, 1809- 
1810 



British minister, Erskine, was sent to Washington. He 
was favorably disposed to the United States and alarmed at 
the growing hostiUty to England. He offered rep- 
aration for the attack on the Chesapeake and 
the withdrawal of the Orders in Council, provided 
the United States would suspend the Non-inter- 
course Act with England and agree to comply 
with the rule of 1756. These terms were more hberal 

than his instructions war- 
ranted, and the treaty 
which he signed was 
promptly repudiated by 
the British government. 
Erskine was recalled and 
Jackson was sent over to 
take his place. The new 
minister was unfriendly 
and overbearing in man- 
ner, and when Madison 
demanded to be shown 
his full powers he rephed 
in such offensive language 
that the president refused 
to have further inter- 
course with him. The 
British government re- 
garded Jackson's conduct as indiscreet, and some months 
later recalled him. 

The tortuous policy pursued by Napoleon at this period 
is very difficult to follow, but his object was to deceive 
Diplomatic President Madison by pretending to repeal liis 
negotiations decrees and to force a war between the United 
with France g^^^^^ ^^^^ England. As soon as he learned of 
the Erskine agreement he announced the withdrawal of the 
Milan decree, but when he heard that the agreement had 




James Madison. 



Struggle for Neutral Rights 231 

been repudiated by the British government he secretly 
ordered the seizure of all American ships found in European 
ports under his control. 

In May, 1810, Congress repealed the Non-intercourse 
Act and authorized the president, in case either France or 
England should withdraw their decrees or orders, to prohibit 
commerce with the other at the end of three months. Napo- 
leon then informed the American minister that the Berlin 
and Milan decrees would not be enforced after November 1. 
In accordance with the act of Congress President Madison 
issued a proclamation on November 2 announcing that com- 
mercial intercourse with Great Britain would cease on Feb- 
ruary 2, 1811. Napoleon had not acted in good faith, and 
it was soon evident that American vessels were still subject 
to unlawful restrictions and seizure. England, therefore, 
refused to modify her orders. 

British ships continued the practice of impressing Ameri- 
can seamen, and in May, 1811, Captain John Rodgers, com- 
manding the frigate President, was ordered from ^^ 
Chesapeake Bay to the Jersey coast to protect between the 
American vessels from interference by the British an^^he"' 
frigate Guerriere. On the way he found himself Little Belt, 
followed by a vessel which he mistook for the ^*^' ^^" 
Guerriere, but which turned out to be the Little Belt. About 
sunset as he overtook her a shot struck the President. Broad- 
sides were then exchanged and the Little Belt was seriously 
injured. Each side disclaimed responsibihty for the first 
shot, but Captain Rodgers was exonerated by his government 
and the British government let the incident pass. The 
American people, however, made no effort to conceal their 
joy and regarded the incident as a retribution for the Chesa- 
peake-Leopard affair. 

During the early years of the nineteenth century the 
frontier was being rapidly extended westward, and the gov- 
ernment could not persuade the Indians to relinquish 



232 National Organization 

their lands rapidly enough to satisfy the more enterprising 

settlers. In 1811 the Indian chief Teeumseh, who had 

„ . already organized the tribes of the Northwest 

Harrison ^ o 

defeats the for resistance, went to the South for the purpose 
indiansof ^^ forming a general league with the Indians in 

the North- o o o 

west at the that quarter. During his absence General William 
battle of Henry Harrison, Governor of Indiana Territory, 

Tippecanoe, „ 

November, advanced with a force of 800 men to occupy a 

i8ii region recently ceded to the government. In 

November, 1811, he encountered a force of Indians on the 
Tippecanoe Creek in western Indiana and after a bloody 
fight drove them from the field. The Indians had secured 
their arms and ammunition in Canada, and it was generally 
believed that the British authorities had incited them to 
acts of hostiHty. Harrison became the popular hero of 
the Northwest, and nearly thirty years later was elected 
president of the United States. 

The Twelfth Congress, which met in extra session Novem- 
ber 4, 1811, was dominated by the younger group of Repub- 
licans, who elected Henry Clay of Kentucky as 
of%aT^ ^°^ speaker. New England was strongly opposed to 
juneiS, -vvar and the Middle States were divided, but 
the South and West controlled the action of 
Congress and a war program was pushed through that 
body. The president knew that the country was unpre- 
pared for war with a great naval power hke England, but 
no other course seemed open to him, so he carried into 
effect the poHcy of the younger and more enthusiastic leaders 
of his party. 

On June 1 he finally sent a message to Congress, in which 
he enumerated the grievances against England : the insolent 
conduct of British cruisers in searching American vessels 
on American coasts, the impressment of American seamen, 
the Orders in Council, the seizure of American ships, and 
the intrigues with the Indians of the Northwest. On June 



Struscgle for Neutral Ricrhts 233 



ij_,j3ivy iv^i ^ -.■oi.ii^xui -»^»'»S> 



18 Congress formally declared war. Five days later the 
British government, acting under pressure of the manufac- 
turing and commercial interests, withdrew the Orders in 
Council, but this was before the days of ocean cableS, and the 
news came too late. The impressment question was, more- 
over, the main cause of the popular feeling against England, 
and that alone was amply sufficient to justify war. 

When Congress declared war Madison had already been 
renominated for the presidency by the Republicans. George 
Clinton, the leader of the New York Republicans, Reelection 
had grown tired of Virginia domination and had of Madison, 
taken steps to organize a coalition between Madi- ^ ^^ 
son's enemies and the Federahsts, 'but he died before the 
campaign had fairly opened. As a result of the disaffection 
in New York, Madison's friends nominated Elbridge Gerry 
of Massachusetts for the vice-presidency. Tliis further 
ahenated the CHnton faction, and De Witt Clinton, a nephew 
of George, was nominated for the presidency by the New 
York legislature and indorsed by the Federahsts. The Fed- 
erahsts still hoped to stop the war and the campaign was 
fought out on this issue. The close alliance of the South 
and West, aided by the votes of Pennsylvania, carried the 
day, and Madison was reelected by 128 electoral votes to 
Clinton's 89. His majority was much smaller than had 
been expected and without the votes of Pennsylvania he 
would have been defeated. 



TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. French Decrees and British Orders: Channing, History of 
the United States, Vol. IV, Chap. XIII, Jeffersonian System, Chaps. 
XIII, XV ; Schouler, History of the United States, Vol. II, pp. 
133-156 ; McMaster, History of the People of the United States, 
Vol. Ill, pp. 220-275; A. T. Mahan, Sea Power in its Relations to 
the War of 1S12, Vol. I, pp. 89-154. 

2. Search and Impressment : Channing, History of the United 



234 National Organization 

Stales, Vol. IV, pp. '365-378, Jeffcrsonian System, Chap. XIV; 
Mahan, Vol. I, pp. 155-180; Roosevelt, Naval War of 1812, 
Vol. I, p. 53. 

3. The Embargo : Channing, History of the United States, Vol. 
IV, Chap*. XIV, Jeffersonian Systetn, Chaps. XVI, XVII ; Mahan, 
Vol. I, pp. 181-214; Wilson, history of the American People, 
Vol. Ill, pp. 193-199; Adams, History of the United States, Vol. 
IV, Chaps. VII, XII, XIX. 

4. The Non-Intercourse Act : Channing, History of the United 
States, Vol. IV, pp. 402-415, Jeffersonian System, Chap. XVIII; 
Mahan, Vol. I, pp. 214-252; Schouler, Vol. II, pp. 282-311. 

5. British Intrigues with the Indians : Schouler, Vol. II, pp. 331- 
335; McMaster, Vol. Ill, pp. 528-540; Adams, Vol. VI, Chaps. 
IV, V. 

6. War with England Declared : President Madison's Message 
to Congress, June 1, 1812, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 
Vol. I, pp. 499-505; K. C. Babcoek, Rise of American Nationality, 
Chap. V ; Channing, Vol. IV, pp. 444-454 ; McMaster, Vol. Ill, 
pp. 426-458 ; Schouler, Vol. II, pp. 335-356. 



CHAPTER XIV 



THE SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND 

During the greater part of the War of 1812 England 
was engaged in the gigantic struggle with Napoleon, and 
could not give the war in America the attention , 
it would otherwise have received. Americans had unprepared, 
no reason to feel anv regard for Napoleon and ^^^ 

. , optimistic 

no attempt was made to form an alliance with 

him or to cooperate in any way. While it was realized that 

the United States 

was not prepared 

to cope with the 

entire military 

and naval power 

of Great Britain, 

it was generally 

believed that with 

the latter's forces 

occupied abroad, 

the conquest of 

Canada would be 

an easy task and 

that a severe blow could be dealt to British commerce. As 

army and navy were both small, great reliance was placed on 

volunteers for the conquest of Canada and on privateers 

for the war on British commerce. 

"On to Canada" was the general cry. The first invading 
column, led by General Hull, crossed over from "Onto 
Detroit in July, 1812, for the purpose of at- Canada" 
tacking Fort Maiden, but on learning that the British had 

235 




The Canadian Frontier. 



236 National Organization 

captured Mackinac and aroused the Indians against the 
Americans, Hull immediately recrossed to Detroit. General 
Brock, the British commander, promptly assumed the ag- 
gressive and on August 15 compelled Hull to surrender 
Detroit with his entire force of 2500 men. 

Two other expeditions which had started for Canada 
were equally fruitless, though they did not equal the dis- 
grace of Hull's surrender. General Dearborn, who was to 
advance through New York against Montreal, met with 
so many delays that he finally went into winter quarters 
at Plattsburg without having accomplished anything. The 
third movement, by way of Niagara, was repulsed at Queens- 
town, October 13, with a loss of 1000 men. It was now 
evident that "on to Canada" was not an easy task for raw 
recruits and untrained militia. 

On the sea the Americans met with a success during the 
first year of the war which, in view of their own slim re- 
sources and the tremendous prestige of the 
The war on . ^ . ^ 

the sea, British navy, filled them with pride and at- 

^^^^ tracted the attention of all the world. At the 

beginning of the war the United States had in commission 
three forty-four-gun frigates. United States, Constitution, 
and President; three thirty-eight-gun frigates. Congress, Con- 
stellation, and Chesapeake ; the Essex of thirty-two guns, the 
Adams of twenty-eight, two sloops. Hornet and Wasp, each 
of eighteen guns^ and six brigs of twelve to sixteen guns each, 
besides about two hundred and fifty small boats mounting 
usually a single gun. The American frigate was superior in 
construction and armament to the British frigate, but the 
American navy did not possess a single vessel corresponding 
to the British ship-of-the-line, which carried usually seventy- 
four guns. 

When the war began most of the ships were in New York 
harbor in two divisions, one commanded by Commodore 
John Rodgers and the other by Commodore Stephen Decatur. 



The Second War with England 237 

On June 21 Rodgers put to sea with the entire squadron and 

started in search of a large convoy which had sailed from 

Jamaica for England. He followed it to within a short 

distance of the British Channel, but failing to overtake it, 

sailed south to the Madeiras and then returned home, putting 

in at Boston August 31. While he had made no important 

captures, his movements kept the British squadron waiting in 

suspense off the American coast and prevented the ships from 

separating and going in search of American merchant vessels, 

large numbers of which were returning to the United States. 

Meanwhile the first of the single-ship actions, or naval 

duels, which redounded so to the credit of the Americans, 

had occurred. When Rodgers left New York 

, - . , ^ • ■ , , , The fight 

on his cruise, the tonstituhon, commanded by between the 

Captain ■ Hull, was at Annapolis enlisting a Constitution 

crew. She put to sea in July and eluding the Gueniere, 

pursuit of the British squadron, which was sighted August 19, 

off the coast of New Jerse}'^, made her way to 

Boston and later to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where some 

important prizes were taken. Hull then started South for 

the Bermudas and had run about 300 miles when on August 

19 he sighted the Guerriere. In an action which lasted 

about half an hour the Guerriere was rendered helpless and 

forced to surrender. Her injuries were so serious that after 

the removal of her crew Hull ordered her to be blown up. 

Hull was a nephew of the general who a few days before 

had surrendered Detroit, and his victory was as welcome 

to his countrymen as it was surprising to the world at large. 

The prestige of the British navy was at last broken by a 

ship of the American navy, which had so long been treated 

with contempt. 

On October 18, 1812, occurred the second naval duel, in 

which the American sloop Wasp, Captain Jacob Jones, took 

the British sloop Frolic. The fight occurred about 500 

miles east of Chesapeake Bay. Scarcely had Jones taken 



238 National Organization 

possession of the Frolic when the British ship-of-the-hne 
Poidiers, of seventy-four guns, came along and took both 
Other vie- ^^^^^ ^^*^ ^^^ prize. A week later the United 
toriesatsea, States, commanded by Commodore Decatur, met 
^ ^^ the Macedonian about 500 miles west of the 

Canaries, and took her after a hard fight, the ships being 
of about equal size. On December 29 the Constitution, 
Captain Bainbridge, had a remarkable encounter with the 
Java off the coast of Brazil. After a two hours' fight the 
British ship was completely disabled and the American ship 
had to draw off for repairs before receiving the surrender. 
The Java had to be burned as she was too seriously injured 
to be taken to port. 

On February 24, 1813, occurred the last of the five naval 
duels that took place during the first period of the war. The 
Hornet, Captain Lawrence, encountered the Peacock off the 
mouth of the Demarara River and soon forced her to strike 
her colors. As she did so she signaled distress, and the 
Americans at once came to her aid, but she went down al- 
most immediately carrying nine of her own crew and three 
of the Hornet's. 

Great Britain did not put forth her naval strength until 
the early spring of 1813. In September, 1812, Admiral 
Sir John Warren had been placed in charge of 
ican coast the American station with Halifax as the base 
blockaded, Qf operations. He had under his command 
eleven ships-of-the-line, thirty-four frigates, thirty- 
eight sloops, and other vessels, making a total of ninety- 
seven. His mission was partly diplomatic and he sent to 
President Madison proposals of peace. The president replied 
that the abandonment of impressment was an indispensable 
condition, but as the British were not willing to concede 
this the negotiations came to naught. 

In February and March, 1813, Admiral Warren proceeded 
to blockade the coast from Narragansett Bay to Florida, 



The Second War with England 239 



b' 



bottling up naval ships and merchant vessels, and capturing 
those that were rash enough to venture out. The New 
England coast was not strictly blockaded until the following 
year, as the people were violently opposed to the adminis- 
tration of Madison and were willing to supply the British 
naval station at Halifax with provisions. 

The first serious disaster on the seas was the loss of the 
Chesapeake in a fight with the Shannon off Boston, June 1, 
1813. Captain Lawrence, fresh from his vie- jgoj^^gj 
tory over the Peacock in February, had been encounters, 
transferred to the Chesapeake and had just ^^^3-1814 
shipped a new and inexperienced crew at Boston when he 
was challenged by Captain Broke of the Shannon to come 
out and fight. He unwisely accepted the challenge though 
neither he nor his crew had tried the ship at sea. The result 
was that he got the worst of it. The Chesapeake surrendered 
after a desperate fight in which Lawrence was killed. In 
August the American brig Argus, Captain Allen, after taking 
nineteen prizes in English waters, was captured by the Pelican 
off the coast of Wales, but not until her captain was mortally 
wounded. 

In September the Enterprise, Lieutenant Burrows, had a 
fight with the British ship Boxer off the Maine coast, in 
which the Americans were successful. Both commanders 
were killed in the action. In June, 1814, a remarkable fight 
occurred off the English Channel between the American 
sloop Wasp, Captain Blakeley, and the British Reindeer. 
The Reindeer was taken in nineteen minutes and burned 
by Blakeley, as the risk of sending her to an American port 
was too great. Blakeley then cruised southward and after 
taking two or three more prizes the Wasp disappeared from 
human view. She was never heard from again. 

The United States frigate Essex, thirty-two guns, made 
a notable cruise under Captain David Porter. A month 
after the war broke out she put to sea and during the re- 



240 National Omanization 



&' 



mainder of the year she took ten prizes and 423 men. She 
then went to the South Atlantic and finally around Cape 
The cruise Horn, and captured a number of British whalers 
of the £ssex, off the Galapagos Islands. She was finally block- 
1812-1814 aded in Valparaiso harbor in February, 1814, 
and captured a month later. With Porter was David 
Farragut, then a midshipman thirteen years old. These 
incidents in remote waters had little or no effect on the con- 
test, however gratifying they were to American pride. 

The work of American privateers was as brilliant as that 
of the regular navy. Ships were fitted out and armed at- 
Privateers great expense to prey on British commerce, and 
and prizes ^ successful cruise brought great profits to the 
owners and shareholders who had taken stock in the enter- 
prise. Nearly five hundred privateers were granted com- 
missions during the war. Of these Maryland furnished the 
largest number; New York and Philadelphia came next; 
while the Massachusetts coast towns and Charleston, South 
Carolina, also sent out a number. 

It is almost impossible to give exact figures of the number 
of captures on either side. During the earlier part of the 
war the Americans took the larger number of prizes, but 
after the blockade was established the British figures were 
swelled by bay craft and oyster boats of little value. There 
were probably as many as 1700 prizes taken on each side, 
including the work of both privateers and war vessels. After 
the blockade became effective there were few American 
merchantmen on the seas to be taken, while American 
cruisers continued their depredations on British commerce 
in distant waters, though many of the prizes which they took 
were recaptured before they could be brought to an American 
port. 

On May 30, 1814, general peace was signed in Europe, 
and Napoleon having been sent to the island of Elba, Eng- 
land was free to direct her resources against America. On 



The Second War with England 241 



t>' 



May 31 she ordered a stricter blockade of the American 
coast, including New England which had hitherto been 
largely spared. She was now able to place an 
overwhelming division on blockade before each commerce 
American port and a ship-of-the-line with each <^"ven from 

'- . ^ . the seas 

division. The American frigates were thus suc- 
cessfully excluded from the ocean. When the war ended 
the only American vessels on the seas were the Constitution , 
three sloops, and one brig. When therefore we consider 
the effect of the war on the commerce of the two countries, 
we see that England had the overwhelming advantage. In 
fact American commerce was practically driven from the seas. 
Exports from the United States in 1807, the last year of un- 
restricted commerce, were $108,000,000; in 1814 they 
amounted to less than $7,000,000. 

After the surrender of Detroit, General Harrison, whose 
defeat of the Indians at Tippecanoe had made him popular 
with the men of Kentucky and th(? North- 
west, was appointed to succeed Hull. He onthe^'^ 
soon formed a plan of attacking Fort Maiden Canadian 
by crossing over on the ice, but this plan was /g"*^^'^' 
thwarted by the defeat of the leading division 
under Winchester at Frenchtown on the Raisin River in 
January, 1813." As Winchester was preparing to drive the 
British from this post he was attacked by a superior force 
from Fort Maiden. Five hundred Americans were taken 
prisoners, nearly four hundred killed or massacred by the 
Indians after the battle, and less than forty escaped back 
to the main army. Weakened by this loss Harrison had to 
withdraw from his position on the Maumee, and as the 
terms of the militia expired in February, he had to delay 
further operations until he could enlist a new army. 

During the summei' of 1813 Captain Oliver Hazard Perry, 
who was given the naval command on Lake Erie, pushed 
forward the construction of brigs and gunboats on the 



242 



National Organization 



Perry's vic- 
tory on Lake 
Erie, Sep- 
tember 10, 
1813 



stocks at Presqiie Isle with such energy that by September 
he was able to put to sea with a fleet of six ships, which in 
tonnage, metal, and men was superior to that of 
the British. On September 10 he won a brilliant 
victory, and sent to General Harrison the dis- 
patch : "We have met the enemy and they are 
ours. Two ships, two brigs, and one sloop." 
The destruction of the British fleet on Lake Erie caused 
the army to abandon Detroit and opened the way for the 
invasion of Canada. Harrison's force of 4500 men was 

transported across the 
lake and landed near 
Maiden, from which the 
British promptly with- 
drew. They burned both 
Detroit and Maiden be- 
fore retiring. Harrison 
followed the retreating 
British and forced them 
to fight at the Thames 
River. The engagement 
was short and the victory 
decisive for the Ameri- 
cans. Among the slain 
was the Indian chief 
Tecumseh, who had or- 
ganized the Indians of 
the Northwest against 
the United States. The 
Indians had been the mainstay of the British control of this 
region and they now retired from the contest. The United 
States was now secure in the possession of Michigan Terri- 
tory and Harrison dismissed most of his troops. 

On Lake Ontario the Americans were not so successful. 
Commodore Chauncey, the American commander, and Sir 




Oliver H. Perry. 



The Second War with England 243 



James Yeo kept maneuvering for advantage and avoided a 
decisive action, so that the advantage was now with one 
side and now with the other. An American force operations 
landed at York, the present Toronto, and burned on Lake 
the parhament house, which later gave the British the*s"° 
a pretext for burning the government buildings Lawrence, 
at Washington. In October, 1813, General Wil- '^'^ 
kinson left Sackett's Harbor with 3000 men and moved 
down the St. Lawrence against Montreal, but suffered a 
disgraceful repulse at Chrystler's 
Farm. Meanwhile General Wade 
Hampton, who had marched from 
Plattsburg to the St. Lawrence 
with 4000 men to cooperate in 
the attack on Montreal, grew 
tired of waiting for Wilkinson 
and returned to Plattsburg with- 
out orders. Hampton resigned 
from the service and Wilkinson 
was whitewashed by a court- 
martial. At the close of the 
campaign on Lake Ontario and 
the St. Lawrence neither side 
had any marked advantage. 

Each occupied about the same territory that it held at the 
beginning. 

The American campaign of 1814 was better managed on 
the Canadian frontier. General Jacob Brown was placed 
in command of the whole Ontario line. He col- 
lected his forces at Sackett's Harbor and then around 
advanced to Niagara, where General Winficld Niagara, 
Scott had his little force well organized and dis- 
ciplined. The Americans crossed the Niagara River and 
on July 5 Scott gallantly won the battle of Chippewa, the 
American loss being 297 and the British 515. Ten days 




Operations Around Niagara. 



244 . National Organization 

later, the main body under Brown having joined Scott, a 
desperate battle was fought at Lundy's Lane. The Ameri- 
cans claimed the victory, but their losses were heavier than 
the British and they soon retired to Fort Erie, where they 
remained shut up by the British until they finally recrossed 
the river. This was the end of offensive operations against 
Canada. 

Meanwhile Napoleon had been overthrown and in May 
England had made peace with France. The British govern- 
The British ^^^ut at once decided to tighten the blockade 
take the and to send to America a large force of veteran 

ensive troops, trained in the wars against Napoleon. 
The British were now in a position to assume the offensive 
and four separate attacks were planned. One expedition 
occupied the coast of Maine as far as the Kennebec, another 
attempted an invasion of New York by way of Lake Cham- 
plain, a third was sent to the Chesapeake to attack Wash- 
ington and Baltimore, and a fourth was sent to capture 
New Orleans. The outlook for Americans was dark. 

During the summer of 1814, General Prevost advanced 
from Canada to the lower end of Lake Champlain with a 
^. ^ . . force of 11,000 men. He could proceed no 

The British ' .. i^iii i-i 

advance lartlier Without gaming control oi the lake, which 

from Canada ^^.s commanded by a small naval force under 

chccKcd bv 

Macdon- Captain Thomas Macdonough. There was also 
ough'svic- a force of 2000 American troops at Plattsburg 
Champlain, commanded by General Macomb. A desperate 
September battle on the lake occurred off Plattsburg Septem- 
ber 11. At the end of two hours Macdonough's 
principal ship, the Saratoga, was disabled and the British 
seemed to have the victory in their grasp. Macdonough 
skillfully managed, however, to let one end of his ship swing 
around with the current so as to present a new broadside 
to the British. After another half hour's fighting the 
British ship Confiance struck her colors and the others soon 



The Second War with England 



245 



followed. Macdonough's victory was the most decisive of 
the war, for Prevost's force of 11,000 men at once began the 
retreat to Canada. 

The Chesapeake expedition was purely punitive. The 
British had no idea of permanently occupying any territory 
in this region. They entered the Patuxent River ^j^^ . 
August 18, 1814, and marched unopposed to of Washing- 
Bladensburg, five miles from Washington. Here *°° 
on August 24, 4000 British regulars easily routed the ill- 
organized force of between 6000 and 7000 militia which had 

been hastily collected to oppose 
them. The British then entered 
Washington, burned the Capitol, 
White House, and several other 
public buildings, and retired with- 
out opposition to their ships in 
the Patuxent. 

Proceeding up the Bay the 
British anchored off the mouth 
of the Patapsco on Sep- ^j^^ ^^^^^^ 
temberll. The troops onBaiti- 
were landed at North ™°''® 
Point, twelve miles from Baltimore, 
while the ships proceeded up the 
river to bombard Fort McHenry. 
Next day occurred the battle of North Point. As the 
British advanced up the peninsula they were attacked by 
the militia and their commander, Major General Ross, 
was killed. They continued the advance and drove the 
Americans back into the trenches before the city, ])ut as 
these were filled with 14,000 militia, the British hesitated 
to press the attack. Meanwhile the fleet had failed to 
take Fort McHenry, so the invading force decided to reem- 
bark and retire. During the bombardment of the fort 
Francis Scott Kev, who had been detained aboard one of 




Operations Around Wash- 
ington AND Baltimore. 



246 National Organization 

the British ships, was inspired to write the "Star-Spangled 
Banner." 

In the late autumn of 1814 Great Britain sent a force of 
over 10,000 men, composed mainly of Wellington's seasoned 
troops, to the mouth of the Mississippi River 
ofN^w"'^ for the purpose of capturing New Orleans and 
Orleans, gaining control of the Louisiana territory. An- 
iS^s^"^^^ drew Jackson, who had recently been appointed 
major general and placed in command of the 
Southwest, was at Mobile, which had been lately occupied 
by American troops, when he learned that the British were 
about to attack New Orleans. Calling on the militia of 
Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia to follow him, he at 
once set out for the scene of action and threw himself with 
great energy into the work of preparing the city for defense. 

On January 8, 1815, Jackson won a brilliant victory over 
the British. He had fortified himself strongly about five 
miles below New Orleans. He had with him about 4000 
troops, mostly militia, but expert marksmen. The British 
commander. General Pakenham, advanced cautiously with 
a division of 5000 men and tried to carry the American 
trenches, but he was repulsed with heavy losses, mainly 
through the superiority of the American riflemen, who 
picked off the British with unerring accuracy. Three of 
the British major generals were killed, among them Paken- 
ham, and their total losses were over 2000, while the Ameri- 
cans lost only 71. 

The battle of New Orleans caused great rejoicing through- 
out the country, but it did not affect the outcome of the war, 
for the treaty of peace was signed at Ghent two weeks 
before it was fought. Its effect on the course of American 
history, however, was far reaching, for it brought the West 
into greater prominence and made Andrew Jackson the 
miUtary hero and the political leader of that section. 

The American peace commissioners, John Quincy Adams, 



The Second War with England 247 

James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, Albert Gallatin, and Jonathan 

Russell, had been carrying on weary negotiations with the 

British commissioners at Ghent since September. 

^, _ . . , , . , The treaty 

Ihe British commissioners were overbearing and of Ghent, 
the American commissioners could not agree December 
among themselves. Both governments were, how- 
ever, tired of war, and they finally instructed their com- 
missioners to waive most of the demands which they had 
been instructed to make. The treaty, which was finally 
agreed to December 24, 1814, restored things to their former 
status and contained not a single provision relating to the 
questions that had occasioned the war. A copy of the treaty 
reached New York late at night February 11, 1815, and 
spread quickly through the country concurrently with the 
news of Jackson's great victory. The people were quite 
satisfied to let the war close with the battle of New Orleans. 
New England had for some time been restive under Vir- 
ginia domination of national politics and during the war 
the disaffection of this section became a serious 
question. When war was declared nineteen mem- of New Eng- 
bers of Congress from New England, with several land during 

the wslt 

other Federalists from the Middle States, issued 
an address declaring the war unjustifiable, and when the 
president called for troops Massachusetts and Connecticut 
refused to furnish them, claiming that under the Constitu- 
tion they could not be forced to send their militia outside 
of the State. Even the navy suffered from the lack of New 
England support. About half the officers who served 
during the war were furnished by Maryland, the District 
of Columbia, and the Southern States ; of the remainder 
the Middle States furnished nearly two thirds and New 
England a little over one third. 

New England also refused to subscribe to national loans. 
Of the $98,000,000 borrowed during the war this section 
subscribed less than $3,000,000. All the while specie was 



248 National Organization 



&' 



accumulating in her banks. Massachusetts bank deposits 
rose from $1,709,000 in 1811 to $7,326,000 in 1814. But 
the disaffection did not stop here. New England kept up 
a lively trade with the enemy from which large profits were 
derived. Large quantities of flour, grain, and other produce 
were shipped to Halifax to supply the British fleet, while 
the British army in Canada was kept suppHed with beef. 
In August, 1814, General Prevost wrote to his government : 
"Two thirds of the army in Canada are at this moment 
eating beef provided by American contractors. Large 
droves are daily crossing the lines into Lower Canada." 
The embargo which Congress at the instance of the presi- 
dent had placed on exports was not successful in stopping 
this illicit trade and simply increased the discontent in New 
England. 

With the Federal Capitol in ruins and the country in 
deepest gloom, the rachcal leaders of the opposition summoned 
a convention of the New England States to meet 
ford Con- at Hartford to consider the grievances of their 
vention, section and to adopt some means of redress. 
15, 1814- About twenty-five delegates attended the con- 
januarys, vention, which met December 15, 1814. Those 
from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode 
Island were appointed by the State legislatures, while those 
from New Hampshire and Vermont were chosen by local 
gatherings. As the proceedings were secret and the journal 
pubUshed later manifestly incomplete, what really went on 
in the convention has never been fully revealed. It is sup- 
posed, however, that secession and the formation of a con- 
federacy of the eastern States, possibly in connection with 
Canada, was the ultimate object. 

In the contemporary New England press resistance of 
Federal authority was openly discussed, several writers 
asserting that the Constitution was nothingvmore than a 
treaty between independent sovereigns, and one declaring 



The Second War with England 249 

that "State sovereignty excludes the possibility of State 
rebellion : a sovereign State may infract its treaties, but 
can never rebel ; nor can any citizen of such State, while 
acting under and in pursuance of its authority, be guilty 
of treason against the United States." Before adjourning 
to meet at the call of the president the convention proposed 
as an ultimatum the following amendments to the Constitu- 
tion : that the compromise of the Constitution counting 
three fifths of the slaves in apportioning representatives 
should be repealed ; that a two thirds vote of both houses 
should be required to admit a new State, to declare war, 
or to interdict commercial intercourse with any foreign nation ; 
that no naturalized person should be permitted to hold 
any civil office ; that the office of president should be limited 
to one term and that it should not be filled from the same 
State two terms in succession. Before these amendments 
could be submitted to Congress news arrived of the treaty of 
Ghent and of Jackson's victory at New Orleans. 

The Revolution had wrought little change in the com- 
mercial relations of America and England. The United 
States continued to buy most of its manufactured Results of 
articles from the mother country. The period the war 
of restricted commerce from 1808 to 1815 saw the rapid 
development of manufactures, so that the country became 
in large measure a self-sustaining economic unit. This 
was the most important result of the War of 1812. It marked 
the end of commercial dependence on Great Britain just as 
the Revolution marked the end of political dependence. 

The conclusion of peace also dealt the death blow to New 
England FederaHsm. The Federalist leaders never recovered 
from their connection with the Hartford Convention and the 
party soon ceased to exist as a factor in national politics. 
The disasters of the war taught the Republicans the need 
of a stronger army and navy and of a more efficient admin- 
istration of the Federal government. 



250 National Organization 

The failure of either Great Britain or the United States 
to gain any material advantage along the Canadian frontier 
led to a very sensible arrangement in 1817, by which each 
side agreed to Hmit its armament on the Great Lakes. Thus 
for a hundred years the practical neutralization of the Lakes 
has saved the two governments the enormous cost of main- 
taining fleets on these inland waters. 

TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. American Reverses on the Canadian Frontier, 1812 : Babcoek, 
American Naiionality, Chap. VI ; Adams, History of the United 
States, Vol. VI, Chaps. XIV-XVI ; McMaster, Vol. Ill, pp. 556-560, 
Vol. IV, pp. 1-18; Mahan, War of 1812, Vol. I, pp. 337-350. 

2. Single-Ship Actions: Babeock, pp. 106-112; Chamiing, 
Vol. IV, pp. 545-546; Adams, Vol. VI, Chap. XVII; Mahan, 
Vol. I, pp. 412^22, Vol. II, pp. 1-9; E. S. Maelay, History of the 
Navy, Vol. I, pp. 344-435 ; Roosevelt, Naval War of 1812, Vol. I, 
Chaps. Ill, V. 

3. The British Blockade of American Ports: Babcoek, pp. 117- 
120; Charming, Vol. IV, pp. 528-544; Adams, Vol. VII, Chap. 
XI ; Mahan, Vol. I, pp. 399-411, Vol. II, Chap. XIII. 

4. Privateers and Prizes : Channing, Vol. IV, pp. 526-529 ; 
Adams, Vol. VII, Chap. XIII ; Mahan, Vol. II, Chap. XIV ; Mac- 
lay, History of American Privateers, Part II. 

5. Lake and Frontier Fighting, 1813-1814: Channing, Vol. IV, 
pp. 487-506; Mahan, Vol. II, Chaps. X-XII, XV; Maelay, 
History of the Navy, Vol. I, pp. 469-520, 603-621. 

6. The British Attack on Washington and Baltimore : Channing, 
Vol. IV, pp. 506 511 ; Adams, Vol. VIII, Chaps. IV-VI ; Mahan, 
Vol. II, Chap. XVI. 

7. The Battle of New Orleans : Channing, Vol. IV, pp. 513-520 ; 
Adams, Vol. VIII, Chaps. XII-XIV ; Mahan, Vol. II, Chap. 
XVII ; James Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, Vol. II ; J. S. 
Bassett, Life of Andreio Jackson, Vol. I, Chaps. X-XII. 

8. The Treaty of Ghent: Babeock, Chap. X; Channing, Vol. 
IV, pp. 547-557 ; Adams, Vol. IX, Chaps. I, II ; Mahan, Vol. II, 
Chap. XVIII. 

9. Disaffection in New England : Babcoek, Chap. IX ; Chan- 
ning, Vol. IV, pp. 557-564 ; Sehouler, Vol. II, pp. 417-430 ; Adams, 
Vol. VIII, Chap. XI. 



CHAPTER XV 
INDUSTRIAL GROWTH AND WESTWARD EXPANSION 

The fifteen years following the War of 1812 were a period 
of transition in industry, in trade, in politics, and in almost 
every condition affecting the Ufe of the people, a period of 
These years witnessed the rapid expansion of transition 
the West and its rise to a position of great importance 
in national poHtics, the extension of the plantation system 
over a wider area, the development of manufactures, the 
aUgnment of the sections on the tariff issue, the demand for 
internal improvements, the strengthening of the Federal 
power through the great judicial decisions of John Marshall, 
the reshaping of political parties, and the successful asser- 
tion in the Monroe Doctrine of a national foreign policy 
which is still the cardinal principle of American diplomacy. 

The charter of the bank which Hamilton had established 

in 1791 had expired in 1811 and Congress had refused to 

recharter it. The country then had to depend 

. , p o, , 1 • , The second 

lor a currency on the notes oi btate banks issued bank of the 

under varjdng laws and of unequal and uncer- United 
tain value. During the war the Federal govern- 
ment had experienced such great inconvenience from the lack 
of a national bank that at its close the Republican leaders 
decided, notwithstanding the fight which their party had 
made against Hamilton's bank, to create a new one on the 
same model. Calhoun was chairman of the committee 
which reported the bill, though it did not embody fully his 
own views. The new bank was to have a capital of $35,000,- 
000 and was authorized to establish branches in the several 

251 



252 National Organization 

States. The government subscribed one fifth of the stock 
and was to name five of the twenty-five directors. 

At the beginning of the War of 1812 the duties on imports 
had been doubled for the purpose of raising a revenue, with 
The tariff of the provision that they should be reduced to the 
1816 former rate within a year after the close of the 

war. American manufacturers, who had greatly prospered 
during the interruption of the trade with Europe and who 
had founded new industries, were now alarmed lest they 
should be swamped by the accumulated products of the 
English and continental factories, and appealed to Con- 
gress to continue the war rates. Dallas proposed a bill 
which was distinctly protective and it passed with the sup- 
port of President Madison, Calhoun, and other Southern 
leaders, who wanted to see the United States a self-sustaining 
nation, commercially independent of the Old World. 

John Randolph and other factional Republicans opposed 
the measure, so that the South was divided. New England 
was also divided, the manufacturing interests favoring the 
bill and the commercial and shipping interests opposing it. 
The Middle States and the West were almost soUdly for it. 
The Southern representatives who voted for this tariff from 
patriotic motives were not willing to see the protective prin- 
ciple carried any further and after 1816 we find them voting 
consistently against high tariffs. 

As early as 1806 Congress had made an appropriation 
for the construction of the Cumberland Road, a national 
Internal im- highway extending from the Potomac across the 
provements mountains to Wheehng on the Ohio. With the 
growth of the West the demand for the appropriation of 
large sums for the construction of roads and canals became 
more insistent. This poHcy of internal improvements was 
generally supported by the representatives from the Middle 
States and from the West and at first by Calhoun and other 
Southern statesmen on the ground that it was necessary 



Growth and Expansion 253 

in order to bind together the East and West. But Madison 
as a strict constructionist questioned the constitutional 
power of Congress to undertake such works and on March 
3, 1817, he vetoed the so-called ''Bonus Bill," which proposed 
to set aside the profits derived from the government shares 
in the bank of the United States as a permanent fund for in- 
ternal improvements. Clay continued to champion the pol- 
icy, however, and for some years it was a burning politi- 
cal issue. Monroe and Jackson both followed Madison's 
course and vetoed all appropriations for internal improve- 
ments. 

Meanwhile Virginia, South CaroUna, Pennsylvania, and 
New York spent large sums of money on the construction 
of roads and canals. The most important of these enter- 
prises was the Erie Canal, which was undertaken by the 
State of New York in 1817 at the instance of De Witt CUnton 
and completed in 1825 at a cost of $7,000,000. This canal, 
which extended from Albany to Buffalo, was 363 miles long, 
and became the great agency in the development of the 
States bordering on the Great Lakes. It also made New 
York the greatest city on the Atlantic seaboard. 

Some time before the presidential campaign of 1816 
opened, the so-called Virginia "dynasty" had decided that 
Monroe, Madison's secretary of state, should Election of 
have the presidency. The opposition gathered ^^^^ 
around WiUiam H. Crawford, of Georgia. Nominations at 
this time were regularly made by party caucuses of mem- 
bers of Congress. When the Republican caucus met in 
March, 1816, Monroe received 65 votes and Crawford 54, 
while Daniel D. Tompkins, of New York, was nominated for 
the vice-presidency. The Federalists made no regular 
nomination, but it was generally agreed that they should 
support Rufus King of New York. In nearly half the 
States the electors were still chosen by the legislatures; in 
the others, in response to the rising spirit of democracy, 



254 National Orsranization 



&' 



they were chosen by the people. Monroe received 183 
votes to King's 34. 

This election marked the end of FederaUsm. That party 
never put up another candidate for the presidency. Monroe 
was noted for .his conciliatory disposition, but, while lacking 
in brilUancy, he was a man of real ability, for it takes some- 
thing more than a concihatory manner to control poHtical 
factions and to give the country an eight-year "era of good 
feehng," something which no other president ever succeeded 
in doing. He displayed sound judgment in the selection 
of a very able cabinet. John Quincy Adams was appointed 
secretary of state, William H. Crawford secretary of the 
treasury, John C. Calhoun secretary of war, and William 
Wirt attorney-general. 

John Marshall took his seat on the Supreme Bench as 
Chief Justice in 1801. Between that time and his death 
in 1835 he handed down a series of great decisions 
the Supreme which fixed for all time the fundamental princi- 
Court; the p][gg of constitutional interpretation. While 
declare a the Constitution gives the Supreme Court the 
law uncon- right to decide all cases arising under that instru- 
ment, its right to declare an act of Congress or 
the law of a State unconstitutional was at first not generally 
admitted. Marshall gave a decision in 1803 holding an 
act of Congress unconstitutional, and another in 1810 holding 
an act of the State of Georgia unconstitutional. Both these 
decisions raised a storm of protest. The spirit of nation- 
ahty developed rapidly after the War of 1812, and enabled 
Marshall to apply further without serious opposition his 
principles of constitutional construction. 

In 1819 in the famous case of McCulloch v. Maryland 
Marshall expounded the doctrine of the implied powers of 
Congress. The questions involved were the power of Con- 
gress to establish a bank and the right of a State to tax 
the notes of such a bank. On the first point Marshall said : 



Growth and Expansion ^55 

"Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the 
Constitution, and all the means which are appropriate, 
which are plainly adapted to that end, which are xhe doctrine 
not prohibited, but consistent with the letter of implied 
and spirit of the Constitution, are constitutional." p°^^''^ 
He held, therefore, that the bank was constitutional, and 
he held further that a State had no power to tax it, for, he 
said: "The power to tax involves the power to destroy." 

In a case which came up from Florida in 1828 Marshall 
affirmed the constitutional right to acquire territory in these 
words: "The Constitution confers absolutely upon the 
government of the Union the powers of making war and of 
making treaties; consequently that government possesses 
the power of acquiring territory, either by conquest or by 
treaty." These decisions met with general approval, save 
on the part of the extreme States' rights advocates, and 
strengthened immeasurably the Federal power. 

In the famous Dartmouth College case, decided in 1819, 
the jurisdiction of the Federal courts was extended in a new 
direction. In this case, which involved the power of the 
legislature of New Hampshire to modify the charter of the 
college without the consent of the trustees, Marshall held 
that a charter granted to a corporation was a contract 
within the meaning of the clause of the Constitution which 
declares that no State shall pass a law "impairing the obli- 
gation of a contract." This decision brought under Federal 
jurisdiction numbers of cases involving corporations. 

When the Declaration of Independence was adopted, 
slavery existed in all of the thirteen States, but it was by 
no means evenly distributed. According to 
the first census in 1790 more than nine tenths 
of all slaves were found in the Southern States, and there 
they formed about one third of the entire population : 
648,651 slaves to 1,226,057 whites. The Revolution cut 
off the foreign slave trade and by 1783 importations had 



'^5(> National Organization 

almost ceased. In fact most of the States had prohibited 
the importation of slaves by statute, Virginia leading the 
way in 1778. When the Federal Convention met in 1787, 
South Carolina and Georgia were the only States which 
permitted it. 

Meanwhile emancipation was making progress at the North. 
In 1780 slavery was declared by the supreme court of Mas- 
sachusetts to be inconsistent with the bill of rights. Other 
States passed acts providing for immediate or gradual eman- 
cipation as follows : Pennsylvania in 1780, New Hamp- 
shire in 1783, Rhode Island and Connecticut in 1784, New 
York in 1799, and New Jersey in 1804. The Northwest 
Territory became free by the Ordinance of 1787. When 
the Federal Convention adopted the compromise permit- 
ting the continuation of the slave trade for a period of 
twenty years, it was thought by many that slavery was a 
decaying institution. 

A simple mechanical invention was destined, however, 
to give a new lease of life to slavery and to make it the 
Cotton corner stone of an industry in which the South 

culture ^as to enjoy a world-wide monopoly. In 1793 

Eli Whitney, a native of Massachusetts and a graduate of 
Yale, who was teaching school in Georgia, invented the 
cotton gin. Prior to this invention a slave could pick the 
seed from about five pounds of cotton a day; with the gin 
he could clean three hundred pounds. South Carolina and 
Georgia were the only cotton-producing States and the cul- 
ture was limited largely to the sea-island or long-staple 
variety, which could be more easily cleaned. The invention 
of the gin made it profitable to cultivate the short-staple 
variety, which could be produced in the interior or Piedmont 
section of the South. 

Improvements in the textile industries in England had 
already made the demand for cotton greater than the supply. 
The invention of the gin, therefore, gave a great impetus 



Growth and Expansion 257 

to the cotton industry. In 1790 the entire cotton crop of 
the South was 2,000,000 pounds ; in 1800 it had risen to 
40,000,000; in 1810 to 80,000,000; and in 1820 to 177,000,- 
000. The production of cotton continued to double with 
each decade until in 1860 it amounted to 2,154,820,800 
pounds, which was seven eighths of the world's supply. 

In any study of the economic organization of the South 
the plantation system demands first consideration. This 
system was well established in Virginia before Thepianta- 
slavery became a factor of any importance. The tion system 
culture of tobacco was introduced in Virginia in 1616, and 
it almost immediately became the staple product. Tobacco 
is very exhausting to the soil, and under the system of culti- 
vation then in vogue it required the constant clearing of 
new lands and the abandonment of the old. Even if the 
scientific care of soils had been understood, it would have 
been cheaper, under the large land grants of the early days, 
to bring new lands under cultivation than to care for 
the old. The staple export crop and the large land grant 
were two elements of the plantation system. The third 
was non-free labor, first in the form of indented servitude 
and later of slavery. 

We have thus at an early date in Virginia the three char- 
acteristics of an agricultural system totally different from 
that of the North, which had free labor, small land grants, 
and cereal or food products. The population of the North 
became denser, and the surplus wealth was employed in new 
industrial enterprises, while the population of the South 
spread over wider areas, and the surplus gains of successful 
planters were spent in buying up the lands of their poorer 
neighbors and enlarging the tracts of the original plantations, 
or in starting new plantations in the Southwest. 

After the invention of the cotton gin North Carolina 
and Virginia took up the culture of cotton, but its main 
field of extension was the Southwest, where it spread with 



258 National Organization 

astonishing rapidity, carrying with it slavery and the 
plantation system. A greater South was thus brought into 
The greater existence, possessing all the economic character- 
South istics of the old South in an intensified form. 
Cotton became the greatest of all exports and cotton domi- 
nated the politics of the South and of the nation. With the 
establishment of the "Cotton Kingdom" political leader- 
ship passed from Virginia to South Carolina and the Gulf 
States and remained there until the Civil War. 

In 1810 there were only three Western States. Of these 
Kentucky had a population, black and white, of over 400,000 ; 
The rise of Tennessee had about 260,000; and Ohio, which 
the West been admitted in 1803, had 230,000. By 1820 
five more States had been admitted : Louisiana in 1812, 
Indiana in 1816, Mississippi in 1817, Illinois in 1818, and 
Alabama in 1819. The tdtal population of the Western 
States was now over 2,000,000, and settlers were streaming 
into Missouri and beginning to enter Arkansas and Michigan. 

The rapid settlement of the West was greatly facilitated 
by the public land policy of the United States, which was 
Public land outlined ill 1787, but which did not come into 
policy successful Operation until later, owing to the fact 

that much of the best land was under the control of the 
older States or had been granted to companies to develop. 
All lands under national control were, however, surveyed 
in advance of settlement and divided into townships six 
miles square, each township containing thirty-six sections 
of 640 acres each. 

A section was at first the smallest amount that could be 
purchased and the minimum price was one dollar an acre. 
An act of 1800 authorized the sale of 320-acre tracts and the 
price was raised to two dollars an acre. After 1820 the sale 
of 80-acre tracts was permitted and the minimum price was 
fixed at $1.25 an acre. This system simplified the question 
of titles and avoided lawsuits over conflicting claims. 



Growth and Expansion 259 

The first settlers in the West came largely from the South. 
This was true even of the States north of the Ohio River. 
During the first quarter of the nineteenth cen- 
tury settlers from Kentuckv, Tennessee, Virginia, '^^^f^°- 

•^ ■ ' 7 o 7 nomic ue- 

and North Carolina poured into Ohio, Indiana, pendenceof 
Illinois, and Missouri. People from the Middle JJg^uth"'' 
States went into Ohio in large numbers, but in 
Indiana and Illinois the Southerners formed the largest 
element. New Englanders did not come in large numbers 
until the opening of the Erie Canal ancl the settlement of 
the Lake region. Most of the early settlements were along 
the Ohio River and the main trade outlet for this region was 
down the Mississippi River. 

The development of the cotton States of the Southwest 
gave the people of the upper Mississippi and Ohio valleys 
a market for their produce. Without a market a pioneer 
community can make little progress ; in fact it usually 
retrogrades, as did many of the mountain communities of 
the southern Appalachian range. As the people of the Gulf 
States devoted themselves more and more to cotton and sugar, 
they had to purchase their food supplies from other pro- 
ducers. This demand was met by the upper Mississippi 
region. Pork, bacon, lard, beef, butter, cheese, corn, flour, 
and whisky were sent down the Mississippi in large quan- 
tities, and Tennessee, Kentucky, and the States north of 
the Ohio underwent a development no less striking than that 
produced in the Southwest by the cultivation of cotton. 

The North, too, shared in the prosperity of the South and 
the West, for the West now had the means to purchase 
goods freely from other communities. Traffic jjjj-gg. 
up the Mississippi was much more difficult and cornered 
expensive than down. Hence the West bought ^^^^^ 
its supplies from the Middle States and New England. 
What these States could not supply from their own manu- 
factures they imported from abroad, and the goods pur- 



260 National Organization 



?5' 



chased abroad were paid for in Southern cotton and carried 
in New England ships. This three-cornered trade, which 
first opened up internal commerce and made western develop- 
ment possible, was all based on cotton and slavery. As 
soon as the prosperity of the West began to attract large 
numbers of people from the Middle and New England 
States the effect on manufactures was adverse, because 
the continual drain on population kept wages high, and the 
North began to oppose the easy sale of pubhc lands. 

The ^ rapid settlernent of the West fitted in well with 
economic conditions in the South, for the continuance of 
^ .. . , the plantation system necessitated the removal 

Political , ' , , . 1 , , 

alliance of ot the surplus population, both slave and free, 

South and to new lands. The southern origin of a large 
^vcst 

part of the western population, and the depend- 
ence of the West on the southern market tended to keep the 
West in political alliance with the South, and upon this 
alliance depended the political ascendancy of the South in 
the affairs of the Union. Notwithstanding the fact that 
the West favored a protective tariff, it could usually be relied 
on to vote with the South in a presidential election. This 
was not true of Kentucky, which was a Whig stronghold, 
nor of Tennessee, which after Jackson's time was usually 
Whig. The States north of the Ohio regularly voted 
the Democratic ticket, the only exceptions being when 
Clay and Harrison, both western men, were candidates.' 
Clay carried Ohio in 1824 and in 1844, and Harrison carried 
Ohio and Indiana in 1836, and Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan 
in 1840. But as late as the elections of 1848 and 1852 every 
electoral vote north of the Ohio was cast for the Democratic 
ticket. 

The Territory of Missouri, a part of the Louisiana pur- 
chase, had been organized in 1812, and in 1818 it apphed 
for admission as a State. IlUnois had just been admitted 
as a free State and the admission of Alabama as a slave 



Growth and Expansion 261 

State had been practically conceded, though it did not take 
place until the following year. There would then be eleven 
slave and eleven free States. As the slave 
States were outnumbered in the House of Rep- Miggourf 
resentatives, it was considered of vital impor- Com- 
tance for them to preserve an even t)alance in jg"™^*' 
the Senate. When, therefore. Representative 
Tallmadge, of New York, introduced an amendment to the 
Missouri bill prohibiting the further introduction of slavery 
and providing for its ultimate extinction, a fight was at once 
precipitated. As the District of Maine, until then a part 
of Massachusetts, was also applying for admission as a State, 
the Southerners insisted that Missouri should be admitted 
without any restrictions as to slavery so as to preserve the 
balance in the Senate. The Tallmadge amendment passed the 
House in February, 1819, but it was defeated in the Senate. 

A year later when the fight for the admission of Maine 
and Missouri was renewed. Senator Thomas of Illinois 
proposed a compromise, which, with the aid of Henry Clay, 
was finally adopted. It provided for the admission of Mis- 
souri as a slave State, but forever prohibited slavery in 
the rest of the Louisiana purchase lying north of the parallel 
36° 30'. Maine was at the same time admitted. Slavery 
was thus excluded from the greater part of the Louisiana 
purchase, and some writers have maintained that the South 
got the small end of the triangle, but it is hardly possible 
that slavery could ever have gained any foothold in the vast 
region north of Missouri, even had it been permitted by law. 

As we have already seen, the treaty ceding Louisiana to 
the United States did not make it clear as to whether that 
province included West Florida on the one hand, 

Aiii6ricfl.li 

or Texas on the other. Before this matter could occupation 
be adjusted Spain was occupied by Napoleon, of Florida, 
whose brother Joseph was placed upon the 
throne. Diplomatic relations between the United States 



262 National Organization 



&• 



and Spain were thus interrupted from 1808 to 1814. In 
1810 the United States took possession of that part of West 
Florida lying between the Mississippi and Pearl rivers and 
in 1813 the region around Mobile was occupied. 

When diplomatic intercourse was reestablished with Spain 
in 1814 the Florida situation was a difficult one to handle, 
and it was further complicated by claims of American 
citizens against Spain arising out of the suspension of the 
right of deposit at New Orleans in 1802, and out of 
the seizure of American vessels by the French in Spanish 
waters. In 1818 President Monroe sent Jackson into 
East Florida to punish the Seminole Indians, who were 
rendering assistance to the Creeks. Jackson exceeded his 
authority by seizing the Spanish forts of St. Marks and 
Pensacola and by executing two British subjects, who had 
incited the Indians to hostihties. 

These matters were all finally adjusted by the Florida 
treaty of 1819. The United States on its part agreed to 
assume the claims of its citizens against Spain, 
T^eafy"""** which amounted to $5,000,000, while Spain 
signed, agreed to rehnquish both East and West Florida 

fied'isTi'" ^^ ^^^ United States. At the same time it was 
agreed that the boundary between the United 
States and the Spanish provinces to the southwest should 
run from the mouth of the Sabine River in an irregular 
course, following certain lines and rivers, to the source of 
the Arkansas, thence north or south, as the case might be, 
to the forty-second parallel, and along this parallel to the 
Pacific. The United States thus surrendered whatever 
claim it had to Texas, but acquired whatever claim Spain 
had to the Oregon country. The Senate promptly ratified 
the treaty, but the Spanish monarch held it in suspense 
with a view to delaying the recognition by the United States 
of his American provinces then in a state of revolution, so 
that it did not go into effect until 1821. 



Growth and Expansion 263 

When Napoleon placed his brother Joseph on the throne 
of Spain the Spanish provinces in America were left to shift 
for themselves. With the British navy supreme 
on the seas Napoleon could take no steps toward ish-Ameri- 
bringing them under his control. The Spanish canRevoiu- 
colonies soon took advantage of the situation to 
admit British and American vessels to their ports, a thing 
which had been strictly prohibited under the Spanish system, 
and with British and American commerce came liberal 
ideas. The whole of Spanish America went through a period 
of enlightenment such as had never been dreamed of before, 
and revolutionary governments republican in character 
were soon set up in several of the provinces. 

When Ferdinand VII was restored to the throne in 1814, 
he did not have the sense to realize the change that had 
taken place in his colonies and he undertook to reimpose 
on them with unrelaxed rigor the old colonial system. The 
revolution now opened on a large scale, and by 1821 repub- 
lican governments had established themselves in all the 
provinces. In September, 1823, the so-called Holy AUiance, 
composed of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, with whom France 
was now in full cooperation, began to consider the question 
of helping Spain to reconquer her lost provinces and a 
formal conference was called to meet in December at Paris, 

Meanwhile the head of the Holy Alliance, the Emperor 
of Russia, had issued a ukase in 1821 claiming the Pacific 
coast of North America as far south as the fifty- 
first parallel and forbidding all foreigners to united 
trade in that region. This claim was opposed states 
by both England and the United States. Eng- conquest of 
land was also strongly opposed to the reconquest Spanish 
of Spanish America, as she enjoyed a lucrative 
trade with that region. When, therefore, Canning, the 
British foreign secretary, was informed of the proposed 
meeting of the Holy AUiance at Paris, he immediately sent 



264 National Orsjanization 



&' 



for Richard Rush, the American minister at London, and 
proposed that the two countries should unite in opposing 
the intervention of the European aUies in America. Rush 
replied that he was not authorized to enter into such an 
alliance, but that he would immediately notify his govern- 
ment of the proposal. 

When his dispatches were received in Washington, Presi- 
dent Monroe at once forwarded copies to Jefferson and 
Madison, both of whom strongly favored joint action with 
England, but after weeks of discussion in the cabinet it was 
finally decided that, since the attitude of England was al- 
ready known to the European powers, an independent dec- 
laration on the part of the United States would be just as 
effective as a joint declaration, and would furthermore re- 
lieve the United States from any embarrassment that might 
result from a formal alliance. 

Accordingly, in his message to Congress, December 2, 

1823, President Monroe declared, first, that, "the American 

continents, by the free and independent condi- 

The Monroe . , . , , , , i • ^ • 

Doctrine, tion which they have assumed and mamtam, 
December ^re henceforth not to be considered as subjects 
for future colonization by any European powers," 
and, secondly, that "with the governments who have de- 
clared their independence, and maintained it, and whose 
independence we have, on great consideration, and on just 
principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposi- 
tion for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling, in 
any other manner, their destiny, by any European power, 
in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly 
disposition towards the United States." 

This announcement created a profound impression abroad, 
and together with the known attitude of England put a 
stop to all further idea of intervention in Spanish America. 
Canning, however, was greatly chagrined at the turn his 
proposition had taken. He had proposed an alliance ; here 



Growth and Expansion 265 

was an independent declaration which he had the foresight 
to see would be applied in future years against England as 
well as against the continental powers. Nevertheless he 
claimed full .credit for having put a stop to European inter- 
vention, and boasted on the floor of the House of Commons 
that he had "called the new world into existence to redress 
the balance of the old." 

Monroe had been reelected in 1820 without opposition, 
receiving all the electoral votes save one. In 1824 an effort 
was made to revive the caucus method of nomi- ^, 

The presi- 

nations, but when Crawford's friends called a dentiai 
meeting the friends of the other candidates stayed campaign of 
away. About one fourth of the members of 
Congress attended, however, and nominated Crawford for 
president and Gallatin for vice-president. As there was 
only one party, divided into personal factions without clearly 
defined lines, the campaign was largely a personal contest. 
The candidates were, in addition to Crawford, Henry Clay, 
John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, and John C. Calhoun. 
Before the campaign was over Calhoun, reaUzing that he 
was out of the running, agreed to accept the vice-presidency, 
while Crawford's prospects were seriously injured by a stroke 
of paralysis. In the election Jackson received 99 electoral 
votes, Adams 84, Crawford 41, and Clay 37. Calhoun 
received a majority of the votes for vice-president and was 
declared elected, but as no candidate had a majority for 
president the election was thrown into the House. 

Jackson not only had the largest electoral vote, but he 
had also the largest popular vote, and his vote was more 
widely distributed over the country than that Election of 
of any other candidate. As Clay stood fourth Adams by 
on the list he was eliminated by the provision of Rgpre-^ 
of the Constitution, and the House had to choose sentatives, 
between Jackson, Adams, and Crawford. On ^ ^^ 
account of Crawford's state of health the real contest was 



266 



National Organization 



between Jackson and Adams. Clay had great influence in 
Congress, and as he was now out of the race much depended 
on his support. The friends of both Jackson and Adams 
sought his aid, but he would give no assurances. When 
the time came to take the vote, however, his influence was 
thrown to Adams, and Adams was chosen by the votes of 

thirteen of the twenty- 
four States. When 
Adams appointed Clay 
secretary of state the 
cry of bargain and cor- 
ruption was raised, and 
John Randolph with his 
withering sarcasm re- 
ferred to the combination 
of the Puritan and the 
Blackleg, the latter epi- 
thet being called forth by 
Clay's gambling propen- 
sity. Clay challenged 
Randolph to a duel, but 
fortunately neither was 
John Quincy Adams. iniured 

Jackson's followers were greatly outraged at the election 
of Adams and immediately began laying their plans for the 
Reshaping next Campaign. They believed that the will of 
of political lYiQ people had been thwarted by the Adams- 
National Clay combination, and they soon organized a 
Republicans strong opposition to the new administration, 
cratic The Calhoun group had supported Jackson, and 

Republicans ^ow the Crawford group, which controlled Virginia 
and New York, also joined the opposition, among them 
Martin Van Buren, of New York, a shrewd and tactful 
leader, destined to be Jackson's ablest counselor and most 
trusted lieutenant. 




Growth and Expansion '267 

Adams's first message to Congress was unfortunate. In 
it he favored internal improvements and other national 
activities that smacked too much of Hamiltonian theories 
of government. Three weeks later he sent a special message 
to Congress asking for an appropriation to send delegates 
to a congress of the Spanish-American republics to be held 
at Panama in the summer of 1826. A violent debate en- 
sued in which the slavery question again figured, since the 
negro Republic of Hayti was to be represented at the con- 
gress, and several of the other republics were committed to 
a policy of emancipation. The necessary appropriation was 
finally made, but it was delayed so long that the delegates 
could not reach Panama in time for the congress. 

No president ever encountered more persistent opposi- 
tion throughout his entire administration than Adams. 
Party lines became closely drawn once more. The Adams- 
Clay faction became known as National Republicans and 
Jackson's followers became known as Democratic Republi- 
cans. 

In 1824, while the presidential campaign was in progress, 

a tariff act was passed increasing the duties on iron, wool, 

hemp, and other articles produced in the Middle _^ 

m T -111 The tariff 

and Western btates. It was carried by the becomes a 

votes of these States, for the South was almost sectional 
a unit against it and New England was divided, 
casting fifteen votes for, and twenty-three against, the meas- 
ure. It did not help New England manufactures, and the 
commercial and shipping interests were at this time op- 
posed to high tariffs. A protective policy was one of the 
cardinal features of Clay's American system, and the new 
administration was committed to this policy. 

The attitude of the opposition was not clearly defined. 
The South had come to realize that tariff duties were a heavy 
burden on the slave States. On the other hand, the pro- 
tective policy was popular in New York, Pennsylvania, and 



268 National Orsfanization 



&• 



Ohio, whose votes would be essential to Jackson's success 
in 1828. A convention of protectionists was held at Harris- 
burg, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 1827 for the purpose 
of urging further legislation upon Congress. The administra- 
tion thought that by pushing the tariff question to the front 
they could bring about a split between the Jackson men of 
the North and the Jackson men of the South. 

The new Congress which met in December, 1827, was 
controlled by the Jackson men, but they had the tariff 
The Tariff of situation to face and it was necessary to devise 
Abomina- some scheme to get themselves out of the dilemma 
tions, 1828 ^^^ prevent a split in their party. The com- 
mittee on manufactures reported a bill on the last day of 
January, 1828, which was very cleverly devised. It raised 
the duties on hemp, flax, wool, and other raw materials, 
which were produced in the West, but on which New Eng- 
land wanted the duties to be low. The Jackson men from 
the North and from the South were to unite in opposing 
any amendments. The Southerners were then to vote 
against the liill, and the Jackson men of the North and West 
for it. 

It was expected that the New England men would vote 
against the measure, in which case it would be defeated and 
the Adams party would get the blame, while the Jackson 
men of the North could still claim to be advocates of pro- 
tection. To the surprise of its framers enough Adams men 
voted for the bill to carry it through both the House and the 
Senate. Calhoun, who had been active in planning the 
whole scheme, was utterly disgusted, and during the summer 
he wrote for a committee of the South Carolina legislature 
a report which became known as "The South Carolina 
Exposition." This paper discussed the relations of the 
State and Federal governments and expounded the doc- 
trine of nullification, which South Carolina undertook to 
put into practice four years later. 



Growth and Expansion 269 

The campaign of 1824 had seen the end of the caucus 
system of nominations, and the convention system did not 
appear until 1832. In 1828 the candidates were ^j^^ election 
endorsed by State legislatures, but there was of Jackson, 
never much doubt as to who they would be. ^ ^ 
Jackson began his campaign as soon as the election of Adams 
by the House in 1825 was announced. He demanded 
vindication by the votes of the people. Calhoun was again 
a candidate for the vice-presidency. The National Repub- 
licans supported Adams for a second term, and with him 
was associated for the vice-presidency Richard Rush, of 
Pennsylvania. Jackson received 178 electoral votes to 
Adams's 83. He swept the entire South and West and 
divided the vote in the Middle States. Adams, on the 
other hand, got every electoral vote in New England, save 
one in Maine, but he did not receive a single electoral vote 
south of the Potomac or west of the Alleghanies. 

TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. Financial and Economic Problems: Babeoek, American Na- 
tionality, Chaps. XIII-XV; Adams, History of the United States, 
Vol. IX, Chaps. V-VII ; G. S. Callender, Economic History of 
the United States, pp. 387^01, 432-469, 487-494; McMaster, Vol. 
IV, Chaps. XXX, XXXI. 

2. Marshall's Great Decisions: Babcock, Chap. XVIII ; A. B. 
Magruder, John MarshnU, Cliap. X ; J. B. Thayer, John Marshall. 

3. Slavery and the Plantation System : Wilson, History of the 
American People, Vol. Ill, pp. 251-254; U. B. Phillips, Intro- 
duction to Vol. I of Documentary History of American Industrial 
Society, pp. 70-104 ; F. J. Turner, Rise of the New West, Chap. 
IV ; Sehouler, Vol. Ill, pp. 1.35-147 ; Callender, Chap. XV ; Mun- 
ford, Vir(jinia's Attitude toward Slavery and Secession, Part II. 

4. The West as a Factor in the Economic and Political Develop- 
ment of the Country : Turner, Chaps. V-VII ; Callender, Chap. 
XII ; McMaster, Vol. IV, Chap. XXXIII ; Lives of Henry Clay, 
Andrew Jackson, and Thomas Hart Benton (American Statesmen 
Series). 



270 National Organization 

5. The Missouri Compromise : Turner, Chaps. IX, X ; McMas- 
ter, Vol. IV, Chap. XXXIX; Schouler, Vol. Ill, pp. 147-172; 
Carl Schurz, Henry Clay, Vol. I, Chap. VIII. 

6. The Annexation of Florida: Wilson, Vol. Ill, pp. 255-258; 
Schouler, Vol. Ill, pp. 57-98; McMaster, Vol. IV, pp. 430-456, 
474-483 ; Lives of Andrew Jackson by James Parton, W. G. Sum- 
ner, and J. S. Bassett. 

7. The Monroe Doctrine : Turner, Chap. XII ; D. C. Oilman, 
James Monroe, Chap. VII ; Schouler, Vol. Ill, pp. 277 293 ; McMas- 
tor, Vol. V, pp. 28-47; J. W. Foster, Ceidury of American Diplo- 
macy, pp. 438-454 ; W. F. Reddaway, Monroe Doctrine. 

8. The Reorganization of Political Parties : Turner, Chaps. 
XV, XVI; Wilson, Division and Reunion, Chap. I; Schouler, 
Vol. Ill, Chap. XII; McMaster, Vol. V, 488-520; Edward Stan- 
wood, History of the Presidency, Chaps. XI, XII. 

9. The Tariff a Sectional Issue: Turner, Chaps. XIV, XIX; 
Callender, Chap. X ; F. W. Taussig, Tariff History of the United 
States, pp. 68-108. 







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UMTED STATES 
1825-1830 






95 Gieenwich 






PART IV 

SECTIONAL DIVERGENCE 

CHAPTER XVI 
JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY 

The year 1830 marks the opening of the great sectional 
debate in Congress which cuhninated thirty years later in 
secession and civil war. In order to understand 
the long series of events leading up to that terrible character- 
conflict it is necessary to have a clear apprehen- isticsofthe 
sion of the underlying economic differences be- j|"o_i86o 
tween the North and the South which formed the 
basis of sectionalism. 

The South was by nature an agricultural and exporting 
section, while the North was commercial and manufacturing. 
During the decade 1820-1830 the average annual value of the 
exports of cotton, tobacco, and rice was about $33,000,000, 
while all other domestic exports from the entire country 
amounted to only $20,000,000. The South was dependent 
upon foreign markets for the sale of its products and there- 
fore advocated free trade, while the North felt that its de- 
velopment was dependent upon the protection of its indus- 
tries and the creation of a home market. 

Slave labor was not suited to the climate or to the diver- 
sified industry of the North, while it flourished under South- 
ern skies and was ideally adapted to the cultivation of the 
staple crops of tobacco, rice, sugar, and cotton. As free and 
slave labor are mutually exclusive, free labor became in time 

271 



272 Sectional Divergence 



S)^ 



the fixed type at the North, and slave labor the fixed type at 
the South. Under the impetus of skilled labor Northern 
industries became more and more diversified, while the South 
was limited by its lal^or system to a few staple products. 
The expansive agricultural system of the South demanded 
a liberal public land policy, while the North on account of 
the scarcity of labor tried to restrict the sale of public lands, 
and to retard the westward movement of population. In 
like manner the South favored territorial expansion, and the 
North opposed it. 

Foreign immigration further accentuated sectionalism, for 
it passed by the South where it had to face the competition 
of slave labor, and poured over the North and 
foreign im- West. Immigration did not become a very im- 
migration portant factor until the latter half of the period 
sections under consideration. The number of foreigners 
coming to our shores was not recorded until 
1820. From that time on the figures by decades are as fol- 
lows : 1820-1830, 143,439; 1830-1840, 599,125; 1840-1850, 
1,713,251; 1850-1860, 2,598,214. Many of these immi- 
grants were skilled laborers, familiar with the industrial 
methods and processes of the old world, and they expanded 
further the naturally diversified industries of the North and 
West, changing the whole face of civilization, while the 
South remained fixed in its economic system. 

The significance of foreign immigration was as great on its 
political as on its economic side. The newcomers, imbued 
with European ideas of government and without inherited 
State or local ties, swelled immensely the forces that were 
making for nationality. The South, it is true, expanded 
territorially, but the main features of its social and industrial 
system underwent scarcely any modification, while the rest 
of the country became more and more unlike that section 
in fundamental social structure. 

As soon as the South began to feel its isolation and to realize 



Jacksonian Democracy 273 

the danger of being outvoted on vital questions of economic 
policy, it assumed the defensive and took refuge behind the 
doctrine of State sovereignty. A generation of Southerners 
then grew up under the leadership of Calhoun who stoutly 
opposed the new doctrine of national sovereignty as preached 
by Webster, and regarded the preservation of the Union on 
the terms of the original compact as the most vital of all 
issues. 

In 1830 the population of the United States was 12,866,000, 
showing an increase of about thirty-three per cent over 
the census of 1820. Each succeeding census Growth and 
showed as large a rate of increase until 1860, when distribution 
the total population of the country was 31,443,000. ° ^°^" 
In 1830 there were 2,009,000 slaves and over 300,000 free 
blacks. The white population of the free States was at this 
time 6,871,000 and that of the slave States 3,660,000. Tak- 
ing the white population by sections, the Middle and New 
England States had 5,417,000; the slave States bordering 
on the Atlantic from Delaware to Florida had 2,116,000; 
while the remaining States, then constituting the West, had 
2,998,000. The combination of the South and West was 
strong enough, with the aid of New York or Pennsylvania, to 
keep the Democratic party in power, and only twice between 
1830 and 1860 did this party fail to elect its candidate for the 
presidency. 

The election of Jackson in 1828 introduced a new era in 
American politics. It represented the triumph of western 
or frontier democracy over the conservatism of the ^j^^ triumph 
eastern States. Jackson himself was totally of western 
different in character, training, and experience ^^°"^^y 
from his predecessors. All of the other presidents had been 
reared amid scenes of culture and refinement and had been 
tried in high executive or diplomatic positions before being 
called to the highest office in the Nation. Jackson was a 
product of the southwestern frontier and had lost little of 



274 



Sectional Divergence 



the self-reliance, of the restless activity, of the intolerance of 
opposition, and of the sense of loyalty to his friends, which 
had enabled him to make his way to the front in that some- 
what boisterous community. At the same time he had a 
dignified reserve and a stately courtesy which placed him at 

perfect ease in the most 
refined society. His de- 
mocracy was also of a 
new type and different 
from that of Jefferson. 
Jefferson believed in a 
democracy restrained by 
law ; Jackson believed in 
a democracy which knew 
no restraint but the will 
of the people. 

Van Buren, the secre- 
tary^ of state, was the 
only man of marked abil- 
ity in Jackson's first 
cabinet and the only one 
on whose judgment he 
placed much reliance, 
though Eaton, the secretary of war, and Barry, the post- 
Jackson's master-general, also enjoyed his confidence. In 
advisers addition to these he had outside of the cabinet 
a group of personal friends and political supporters who con- 
stituted his real advisers. Among them were Major W. B. 
Lewis, Amos Kendall, Isaac Hill, and Duff Green, who was 
soon supplanted by F. P. Blair. This group of unofficial ad- 
visers was popularly called the "Kitchen Cabinet," because 
it was commonly said that they went in and out of the 
White House through the back door. 

Jackson's inauguration was indicative of the change that 
had taken place. Never before had so many office seekers 




Andrew Jackson. 



Jacksonian Democracy 



275 



or such large crowds gathered in Washington. The streets 
were filled with people, and the crowds surged into the White 
House without restraint to attend the president's The spoUs 
reception, standing on chairs and sofas, jostling system 
the waiters and overturning trays of costly china in their 
eagerness to be served. 
The people had at last 
come into their own. 

Jackson honestly 
shared the general belief 
that the administration 
of Adams had been 
thoroughly corrupt, and 
he made no effort to 
check the general de- 
mand of his friends for a 
division of the spoils of 
government patronage. 
He believed that honesty 
was of greater impor- 
tance than experience in 
public office and he fa- 
vored the principle of 
rotation in office. "To 
the victors belong the 

spoils" was accepted as a political maxim. While Jackson 
made a larger number of removals than any of his predeces- 
sors, he did not remove as many office-holders as some of 
his successors. In fact for the next fifty years the spoils 
system flourished without serious effort to check it. poote's 

In December, 1829, Senator Foote of Connec- resolution 
ticut introduced a resolution questioning the ex- H^yne- 
pediency of the further survey and sale of public Webster 
lands, which came up for consideration in January 
and precipitated the most memorable debate ever held in 




Thomas H. Benton. 



276 Sectional Divergence 

the United States Senate. Benton, of Missouri, and other 
western senators resented any attempt of the New 
England States to check the rapid sales of public lands as 
an attack on their section, and Benton's speech on Foote's 
resolution aroused much bitter feeling in the Senate. 

Hayne of South Carohna opposed the resolution on con- 
stitutional grounds. He held that Congress had no right to 
pass laws that would bear more heavily on one section than 
another, and intimated that a State need not submit to hos- 
tile legislation. It was evident that he had the tariff in mind 
and was endeavoring to further cement the political union 
of the South and West. Webster replied to Hayne and the 
debate soon took a wide range involving the nature of the 
Federal Union and the principles of constitutional construc- 
tion. Hayne expounded the views advanced by Calhoun in 
the "South Carolina Exposition," while Webster maintained 
that the Union had been formed by the people and not by 
the States, that the national government was sovereign within 
the range of powers specified in the Constitution, and that 
nullification carried into practice would be nothing short of 
revolution. 

Webster's argument made a great impression in the 
North, and while some of his positions were historically un- 
true, he gave voice to sentiments of national sovereignty that 
were rapidly gaining ground in his section of the country. 
Foote's resolution failed to pass and the public land policy 
advocated by the South and West became a little later firmly 
established. 

Calhoun, who was the real leader of the nullification 

movement, was now trying to gain support for his doctrine. 

He failed to receive any encouragement from the 

between Virginians who were in close alliance with the New 



Calhoun and York wing of the party now dominated by Van 

Buren. He also failed to receive the support of 

Georgia, which was engaged in a long controversy with the 



Jacksonian Democracy 277 

Cherokee Indians involving the question of State's rights, for 
Jackson sided with the State of Georgia and notified the 
Indians that they must move beyond the Mississippi. 

Meanwhile Jackson and Calhoun had been gradually drift- 
ing apart. Early in his administration the president had 
been deeply offended by the effort of Mrs. Calhoun and other 
ladies connected with the administration to withhold social 
recognition from the wife of the secretary of war, Mrs. Eaton, 
who as Peggy O'Neal, the daughter of a Washington tavern 
keeper, had attained a questionable notoriety in her younger 
days. Van Buren, who was a widower, had stood by Jackson 
in his defense of Mrs. Eaton, and this had drawn the presi- 
dent into closer relations with his secretary of state. Still 
there had been no open breach with Calhoun, and Jackson's 
attitude on nullification was not definitely known. 

Calhoun and his friends now planned a great banquet for 
Jefferson's birthday, April 13, 1830, at which they hoped to 
entrap the president into some expression of approval of 
nullification. When called upon, Jackson surprised them by 
proposing as his toast this sentiment, "Our Federal Union; 
it must be preserved." Calhoun, who followed him, replied 
with the toast, "The Union, next to our liberty, most 
dear." 

It had already been intimated to Jackson that Calhoun 
as secretary of war in Monroe's administration had disap- 
proved of his rash conduct in Florida, although Calhoun had 
written him a letter, at the direction of the president, con- 
gratulating him on his success. Shortly after the Jefferson- 
day dinner a letter was obtained from Crawford, who had 
also been a member of Monroe's cabinet, stating that Cal- 
houn had advised censuring Jackson for his conduct in 
Florida. This letter was shown to the president, and he at 
once called on Calhoun for an explanation. An angry cor- 
respondence ensued between the president and vice-presi- 
dent, which resulted in an open breach. It also resulted in 



278 Sectional Divergence 

the complete reorganization of the cabinet, so as to exclude 

the Calhounites and place the Van Buren faction in control. 

Jackson favored a single term for the president and wanted 

the Constitution amended to that effect, but as the time 

„ . for nominating candidates drew near, his friends 
Renomina- _ ° ' 

tion of insisted that he should accept a second term, and 

Jackson ^ number of State legislatures renominated him. 
He feared that if he declined to run Calhoun might win the 
nomination over Van Buren, and he readily complied with 
the demand of his friends. The dominant party was now 
known as the Democratic party, and Clay had organized 
the National Repubhcans, soon to be known as Whigs, into 
a strong opposition party. 

A third party now made its appearance and nominated a 
candidate for the presidency. This was the Anti-Masonic 
party which originated in New York. In 1826 Wihiam 
Morgan, of Batavia, New York, who had pubhshed a book 
revealing the secrets of freemasonry, mysteriously disap- 
peared, and it was generally beheved that members of the 
Masonic Order had murdered him. The Masons were 
bitterly denounced and a widespread movement was at once 
organized for the purpose of suppressing the Order. In Sep- 
tember, 1831, the new party held a national convention in 
Baltimore and nominated Wilham Wirt for the presidency. 
This was the first national nominating convention, and the 
example of the Anti-Masonic party was at once followed 
by the other parties. 

The National Repubhcans held a convention in Baltimore 
in December and nominated Henry Clay. At the suggestion 
of this convention an informal assembly of young men was 
held in Washington in May, 1832, for the purpose of ratify- 
ing the nomination of Clay. This Washington gathering 
adopted and published the first poHtical platform. Later in 
the same month the Democrats held a convention in Bal- 
timore for the purpose of nominating a candidate for vice- 



Jacksonian Democracy 279 

president. The nomination of Jackson was accepted without 
opposition, and after the adoption of the two-thirds rule 
which has governed all subsequent Democratic conventions, 
Van Buren was nominated for the vice-presidency. 

In searching for a campaign issue Clay made a fatal mis- 
take. As the Northern and Western Democrats favored the 
tariff he could make little of that issue, and his The election 
favorite pohcy of internal improvements aroused °* ^^^2 
httle interest in the East. The Bank of the United States 
had, however, applied for a new charter and Jackson was 
known to be strongly opposed to granting it. In his first 
annual message he had questioned the expediency of rechar- 
tering the bank and he had also expressed doubts as to its 
constitutionahty, although the Supreme Court had long 
since decided that question. The bank was such a formi- 
dable institution and Jackson's attitude appeared so unrea- 
sonable that in July, 1832, in the midst of the campaign. 
Clay's friends pushed through Congress the bill recharter- 
ing the bank, hoping to embarrass Jackson. The president 
promptly vetoed the bill in an able message in which he 
denounced the bank as a monopoly. 

The campaign was now fought out on the bank issue, but 
contrary to Clay's expectations Jackson's position met with 
widespread approval and he received 219 electoral votes to 
Clay's 49. South CaroUna, not wishing to vote for Jackson, 
cast her eleven votes for John Floyd of Virginia. Clay car- 
ried Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, 
Delaware, and Kentucky, and the Anti-Masonic party 
carried Vermont. Jackson carried all the other States. 

Meanwhile in July Congress had passed a new goy^h 
tariff act and the president had signed it. This Carolina 
act was distinctly a protectionist measure. While ordinance 
it did away with most of the "abominations" of ofNuiiifica- 
1828, it levied high duties on cotton and woolen November 
goods, iron, and other articles produced in this 24, 1832 



280 



Sectional Divergence 



country. On articles not produced in the United States it 
reduced the duties or removed them altogether. The aver- 
age rate on dutiable articles was about 33 per cent. It satis- 
fied the demands of the protectionists and laid down a prin- 
ciple which they hoped would be permanently established. 

To Calhoun and his followers the new tariff was much 
more objectionable in principle than the acts of 1824 and 
1828, and in October the legislature of South CaroHna sum- 
moned a convention to 
meet in November for 
the purpose of consider- 
ing what action the State 
should take. On No- 
vember 24 the conven- 
tion passed the Ordi- 
nance of NuUification, 
declaring the tariff acts 
of 1828 and 1832 un- 
constitutional, null and 
void, and directed the 
legislature to take the 
necessary steps to pre- 
vent the enforcement 
of the said acts within 
the limits of South 
Carolina after February 
1, 1833. 
Hayne resigned his seat in the Senate to become governor 
of South Carolina, and was succeeded by Calhoun, who 
The com- resigned the vice-presidency in order to be free 
promise to defend the action of his State on the floor. But 
tan o I 33 j^ckson was in no wise disconcerted. In Decem- 
ber he issued a long proclamation to the people of South 
Carolina, in which he denounced nullification as uncon- 
stitutional and secession as treasonable and declared that 




John C. Calhoun. 



Jacksonian Democracy 281 

the laws of the United States must be executed. In Janu- 
ary, 1833, two measures were taken up in Congress. One 
was the "Force Bill," authorizing the president to use the 
army and navy in enforcing the law, and the other was a tariff 
bill, proposing a reduction of duties. 

As February 1, the time when the Ordinance of NulUfica- 
tion was to go into effect, drew near, the nuUifiers agreed 
to await the outcome of the tariff discussion before resorting 
to force. Finally Clay introduced a compromise tariff bill, 
which provided for a gradual reduction of all duties in excess 
of 20 per cent until July 1, 1842, when there would be a uni- 
form rate of 20 per cent, which was what the Southerners 
demanded. For nine years, however, there was to be a large 
degree of protection. This bill passed Congress a few days 
before the close of the session and at the same time the 
"Force Bill" was enacted. The South CaroHna convention 
then reassembled and repealed the Ordinance of Nullifica- 
tion, and then, in order to hit back at the administration, 
rather foohshly passed ah ordinance nulUfying the "Force 
Bill." 

Had not the South been divided against itself the outcome 
might have been different, but with Andrew Jackson in the 
presidential chair there was little chance of South Carolina 
being able to resist the enforcement of the law. Still the 
compromise of 1833 was in a measure a victory for Calhoun 
and his followers. Except for the brief period of 1842-1846, 
when the duties were again raised, the protective principle 
received little further countenance from the national govern- 
ment until the Civil War. The nulUfication controversy 
ruined Calhoun's chance of ever becoming president, al- 
though he never ceased to cherish that ambition, but it es- 
tablished his position as the recognized champion of Southern 
interests. 

As soon as the nullification controversy was out of the way, 
Jackson turned his attention to the banl:. Most of its 



282 



Sectional Divergence 



officers were opposed to him politically and it was charged 
that the bank, particularly the branch bank at Portsmouth, 
Jackson's New Hampshire, had discriminated against Jack- 
" War on son's Mends and worked for his defeat. Jack- 
theBank gon's Opposition to the bank was, however, of 
much longer standing. He believed that it was a dan- 
gerous monopoly, and now that the people had indorsed 

his position in the cam- 
paign of 1832, he decided 
to withdraw the govern- 
ment funds from the 
bank without waiting for 
the expiration of its 
charter, which was to 
take place in 1836. His 
object was to strengthen 
the State banks by de- 
positing the government 
funds with them, so that 
his enemies who con- 
trolled the bank could 
not call in its loans at 
the last minute and pro- 
duce a panic or threaten 
Congress into recharter- 
ing the bank over his 
veto. 
When Jackson laid his plan before the cabinet he found 
that Louis McLane, the secretary of the treasury, was 
The removal unwilHng to Order the removal of the government 
ofthede- deposits from the bank. Jackson transferred 
posits, I 33 jj^jj^ ^Q ^Yie State Department and appointed 
Wilham J. Duane, of Pennsylvania, to succeed him. Duane 
was flattered at the appointment and accepted the post, but 
after several months' delay finally refused either to remove 




Nicholas Biddle, President of the Bank 
of the United States. 



Jacksonian Democracy 283 

the deposits or to resign. Jackson promptly removed him 
and transferred Roger B. Taney from the post of attorney- 
general to that of secretary of the treasury, Taney immedi- 
ately designated certain State banks as government deposi- 
tories and ordered all funds deposited in them after October 1 . 
The deposits in the Bank of the United States, amounting 
to over $6,000,000, were not withdrawn at once, but were 
gradually drawn on, so that when the bank closed January 
1, 1836, it still had over $600,000 of government funds. 

Clay introduced in the Senate and secured the passage of 
resolutions censuring Jackson for the removal of the deposits. 
Benton later moved that the resolutions of censure be ex- 
punged and continued to bring up his motion at each session 
of the Senate until finally in 1837, when there was a majority 
of Democrats in that body, the expunging resolution passed. 
The Senate refused to confirm Taney's appointment as 
secretary of the treasury, but when Marshall died in 1835 
Jackson appointed Taney chief justice. 

In his annual message of 1835 Jackson announced that 
the national debt had all been paid, but he warned Con- 
gress against future extravagance. Meanwhile 

1 1 • IT The dis- 

a large surplus was accumulating to the credit tributionof 
of the government in the "pet banks," as those the surplus, 
selected to receive government funds were called. 
Many new banks were organized and political influence was 
freely used to secure deposits. This system encouraged spec- 
ulation on a large scale, particularly in government lands, 
and with the increase in the number of banks there was an 
enormous increase in bank note currency. The sale of public 
lands to speculators increased greatly the revenue derived 
from that source, and what to do with the surplus became 
a burning poUtical question. The first step would naturally 
have been to reduce the tariff, but the compromise of 1833 
had settled that question for several years to come and no 
one cared to reopen it. 



284 Sectional Divergence 

As Jackson was opposed to internal improvements, the 
only thing to do seemed to be to distribute the money among 
the States. In June, 1836, Congress passed an act directing 
that the surplus in the treasury on January 1, 1837, in excess 
of $5,000,000, be distributed among the States in proportion 
to population in four quarterly installments. As the Consti- 
tution did not expressly authorize gifts from the public treas- 
ury, the money was to be distributed in the form of a loan. 
Under this act $28,000,000 was distributed in three install- 
ments, but when the time came for the fourth installment the 
panic of 1837 had set in and there was not enough money left 
to continue the distribution. The States were never called 
upon to repay the loan. 

The last measure of financial importance adopted by Jack- 
son was the ''Specie Circular" of July 11, 1836. With the 
The "Specie i'^Aation of the currency, speculation in public 
Circular," lands had gone on to an amazing extent and pay- 

^ ments were made in the notes of State banks of 

very doubtful value. Jackson had declared himself in favor 
of gold and silver as the "true constitutional currency," and 
Benton had introduced a resolution in April, 1836, declaring 
that "nothing but gold and silver coin ought to be received 
in payment for public lands," but his motion was tabled. 
Jackson, therefore, determined to act on his own respon- 
sibihty in order to prevent the government from finding 
itself, through the failure of western banks, with a lot of 
worthless paper on its hands, and in July had a circular letter 
sent to the land agents directing them to receive in future 
nothing but gold and silver in payment for pubhc lands. 
While this measure did not produce, it undoubtedly hastened, 
the crisis of 1837. 

After the Revolution Great Britain had refused to admit 
American ships to her West IncUan ports alid Jay had failed 
to make a satisfactory adjustment in the treaty of 1794. 
After the War of 1812 efforts to secure concessions were re- 



Jacksonian Democracy 285 

newed, but without success. Congress then adopted a pohcy 

of " countervaiUng legislation" and closed American ports 

to British ships coming from the West Indies. 

TA • 1 » 1 1 • • • r^ T-. • • Foreign 

Durmg the Adams admimstration Great Britam affairs: the 

offered certain concessions, but Adams demanded West India 

. trade and 

more than she was wiihng to concede. Jackson s the French 
followers made political capital out of the diplo- " Spoliation 
matic deadlock, and when he became President 
he adopted a more conciliatory attitude. The British gov- 
ernment then expressed its willingness to come to terms and 
the matter was adjusted, so that American ships were at 
last admitted to British West Indian ports. 

Jackson also pressed with vigor American claims against 
France arising out of the seizure of ships and cargoes by 
Napoleon. France finally agreed to pay 25,000,000 francs 
to be distributed among the claimants by the government 
of the United States. The satisfactory settlement of these 
two controversies added greatly to the national prestige and 
to Jackson's popularity with his countrymen. 

By the Florida treaty of 1819 the United States surren- 
dered, as we have seen, whatever claim it had to Texas. Two 
years later Mexico became independent of Spain 
and the provinces of Coahuila and Texas were pendenceof 
later united and organized as one of the United Texas, 
States of Mexico. Very soon settlers from the 
United States began pouring into Texas and President Adams, 
foreseeing trouble with Mexico, authorized the American 
minister to propose the purchase of Texas. Mexico refused 
to entertain the proposal at this time or when it was made a 
second time shortly after Jackson became president. Ameri- 
cans continued to pour into the country notwithstanding the 
efforts of the Mexican government to check immigration and 
in spite of hostile legislation directed against the American 
communities. - 

In 1835 there were nearly 30,000 Americans in Texas and 



286 



Sectional Divergence 



they decided to drive out the Mexicans and establish an in- 
dependent state. The Mexican forces were soon driven 
across the Rio Grande, but Santa Anna, the president of 
Mexico, soon appeared with an army of several thousand 
men. A heroic band of 183 Texans was besieged in the 
fort of The Alamo at San Antonio and held out for two weeks, 
when the place was carried by storm. Not a single member 
of the garrison escaped death. Their heroic defense inspired 
the Texans to action and Sam Houston quickly collected a 

force which defeated Santa Anna 
in the battle of San Jacinto April 
21, 1836. Santa Anna was him- 
self taken prisoner and released 
two months later only after prom- 
ising to grant the Texans their 
independence. His government 
repudiated this agreement, but 
took no steps to reconquer the 
Texans. An independent repub- 
lic was estabUshed with Sam 
Houston as president, but offers 
of annexation were made to the 
United States. Jackson, however, deferred action, partly 
because he did not want to get into trouble with Mexico and 
partly because he did not wish to inject this question into the 
presidential campaign then in progress. 

Jackson had his party well in hand and he had long de- 
cided that Van Buren should be his successor. In May, 
The election 1^^^> more than a year before the usual time for 
of Van the opening of the presidential campaign, a Demo- 

uren, 1836 gj,g^^jg convention met in Baltimore and nominated 
Van Buren by acclamation, though without any great enthu- 
siasm. A ballot was taken for vice-president and Richard 
M. Johnson of Kentucky was nominated* The Whigs 
thought it best not to nominate a candidate and held no 




General Sam Houston. 



Jacksonian Democracy 287 

convention, but they hoped by running different men in 
different parts of the country to capture enough electoral 
votes to throw the election into the House. Van Buren 
received 170 electoral votes, which was more than a major- 
ity. Of the Whig candidates WiUiam Henry Harrison 
received 73 votes. White of Tennessee 26, and Webster of 
Massachusetts 14. South CaroHna, unwilling to vote for 
Jackson's candidate, cast her 1 1 votes for Mangum of North 
Carolina. Johnson did not receive a majority of the electoral 
votes, but he was chosen vice-president by the Senate. 

Although a shrewd political adviser, Van Buren possessed 
few of the gifts of a popular leader. He labored under the 
handicap of having received his high office at the Administra- 
hands of Andrew Jackson rather than from tionofVan 
the people. He announced his intention of ^^^^ 
treading in the footsteps of General Jackson, but he lacked 
Jackson's self-reliance and he soon lost the confidence of 
his party and of the pubhc at large. 

Scarcely had Van Buren taken his seat in the presidential 
chair when the country entered upon a period of financial 
depression such as had never been seen before and pjnanciai 
has been equaled only once since. Van Buren panic of 
was in no way responsible for this state of affairs. ^ ^^ 
The crisis had been brought about by overspeculation, and 
it had been hastened by Jackson's financial policy. The 
Whigs charged it all to the destruction of the bank and hoped 
to force the establishment of a new one. Van Buren pro- 
posed instead the absolute divorce of the government from 
the banks and got introduced into Congress the "Independent 
Treasury Bill," which provided that the government should 
keep its fund locked up in the vaults of the treasury and of 
subtreasuries to be established in different parts of the coun- 
try. The bill was twice defeated, but it finally became a law 
in 1840. 



288 Sectional Divergence 

TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. Jacksonian Democracy: Wilson, Division and Reunion, 
pp. 19-26; Schouler, Vol. Ill, pp. 426-453; Wm. MacDonald, 
Jacksonian Democracy, Chaps. I-III ; Sumner, Andrew Jackson, 
Chap. I ; Stanwood, History of the Presidency, Chap. XII. 

2. The Spoils System: Wilson, Division and Reunion, pp. 26- 
34; Schouler, Vol. Ill, pp. 453-461; MacDonald, Chap. IV; 
McMaster, Vol. V, pp. 519-536; Bassett, Life of Andrew Jackson, 
Vol. II, Chap. XXI. 

3. The Public Land Question : Wilson, Division and Reunion, 
pp. 41-48; MacDonald, Chap. VI; McMaster, Vol. VI, pp. 11- 
29; Sumner, Andrew Jackson, pp. 184-191. 

4. The Breach between Calhoun and Jackson : Wilson, Division 
and Reunion, pp. 52-59; Schouler, Vol. Ill, pp. 488-501, Vol. IV, 
pp. 31-37; Sumner, Andrew Jackson, Chap. VII ; Bassett, Life 
of Andrew Jackson, Vol. II, Chap. XXIV. 

5. The National Nominating Convention : McMaster, Vol. VI, 
pp. 114-152; MacDonald, Chap. XI; Stanwood, History of the 
Presidency, Chap. XIV. 

6. The Nullification Controversy : Wilson, Division and Reunion, 
pp. 59-68; Schouler, Vol. IV, pp. 38-40, 85-111; MacDonald, 
Chaps. V, IX ; McMaster, Vol. VI, pp. 148-176 ; Sumner, Andrew 
Jackson, Chap. X, XIII ; Bassett, Life of Andrew Jackson, Vol. 
II, Chap. XXVI ; Carl Schurz, Henry Clay, Vol. II, Chap. XIV. 

7. The Bank Controversy : Wilson, Division and Reunion, 
Chap. Ill; Schouler, Vol. IV, pp. 132-182; MacDonald, Chaps. 
VII, XIII ; McMaster, Vol. VI, pp. 1-11, 133-140, 184-211 ; Sum- 
ner, Andreio Jackson, Chap. XI, XIII ; Bassett, Life of Andrew 
Jackson, Vol. II, Chaps. XXVII-XXIX. 

8. Foreign Affairs under Jackson: MacDonald, Chap. XII ; Mc- 
Master, Vol. VI, pp. 236-241, 299-303; Sumner, Andrew Jackson, 
pp. 164-174 ; Bassett, Life of Andrew Jackson, Vol. II, Chap. XXX. 

9. The Independence of Texas : Schouler, Vol. IV, pp. 247- 
256 ; McMaster, Vol. VI, pp. 250-270, 461-482 ; Bassett, Life of 
Andrew Jackson, Vol. II, pp. 673-678, 735-743 ; R. M. McElroy, 
Winning of the Far West, Chaps. I, II ; H. Bruce, Life of General 
Houston. 

10. Martin Van Buren : Wilson, Division and Reunion, pp. 93- 
101; Schouler, Vol. IV, Chap. XV; MacDonald, Chap. XVII; 
McMaster, Vol. VI, pp. 389-419; E. M. Shepard, Martin Van 
Buren. 



CHAPTER XVII 



Henry Clay. 



THE PERIOD OF THE MEXICAN WAR 

In spite of Van Buren's unpopularity and the misfortunes 

of his administration no other aspirant appeared to contest 

his party lead- ^, , . 

'- , , The election 

ership and he of Harrison 

was renomi- and Tyler, 

1840 
nated without 

opposition by a conven- 
tion which met in Balti- 
more May 5, 1840. As 
there were several candi- 
dates for the vice-presi- 
dential nomination the 
convention decided not 
to choose between them, 
expecting that the choice 
would ultimately devolve 
upon the Senate. A 
platform was adopted 
embodying the charac- 
teristic principles of 
Jeffersonian and Jack- 
sonian democracy. 
The Whigs had already held their convention at Harris- 
burg, Pennsylvania, December 4, 1839. Clay, who had been 
the most active organizer of the party, was eager for the nomi- 
nation, but as the party was made up of such diverse elements 
it was deemed best to nominate WiUiam Henry Harrison, 

289 




290 Sectional Divergence 

whose political principles were not so clearly defined or so 
well known. For the vice-presidency they nominated John 
Tyler of Virginia, a strict-constructionist Democrat, whose 
opposition to Jackson had carried him into the Whig party. 

As the Whigs could not agree upon a platform, they de- 
cided to conduct a spectacular campaign and to arouse popu- 
lar enthusiasm for the old hero of Tippecanoe. Log cabins 
were drawn through the streets on floats, with barrels of cider 
outside and live raccoons tied to the door. The campaign 
was turned into a carnival of merrymaking and the immense 
throngs that gathered at street parades and mass meetings 
joined in singing popular songs ending in the refrain of "Tip- 
pecanoe and Tyler too." These methods were successful. 
Harrison and Tyler received 234 electoral votes and Van 
Buren only 60. This campaign is also memorable for the 
appearance of the AboHtion party, which nominated James 
G. Birney of New York as its first candidate for the presi- 
dency. 

Office-seekers flocked to Harrison's inauguration in even 
larger numbers than had attended the first inauguration of 
Death of Jackson, and notwithstanding the fact that the 
Harrison, Whig party had bitterly denounced Jackson's 
AprU4, 1841 j-gj^Qya^ig from office, the demands of Harrison's 
followers were overwhelming. The president, who was sixty- 
eight years of age, could not stand the strain, and exactly one 
month after his inauguration he suddenl}^ succumbed to an 
attack of pneumonia. 

For the first time in the history of the country the vice- 
president succeeded. Even had Harrison lived it would have 
been a difficult task to hold together a party formed out of 
the various elements that had opposed Jackson, but with 
Tyler the case was hopeless, for he was entirely out of sym- 
pathy with the dominant faction headed by Clay, and now 
that Harrison was dead Clay regarded himself as the respon- 
sible leader charged with carrying out the party program. 



Period of the Mexican War 291 

Tyler retained for the present Harrison's cabinet, with 
Daniel Webster as secretary of state and friends of Clay 
in the other departments. When Congress met Tyler's 
in extra session on the last of May, in pursuance break with 
of a call issued by Harrison shortly before his * ® ^^ 
death, Clay promptly announced his program, which in- 
cluded the repeal of the subtreasury act, the incorporation 
of a new bank, and the enactment of a new tariff law. 

Tyler did not like Clay's assumption of party leadership 
and when the bill establishing a bank in the District of Co- 
lumbia with branches in the States was presented for his sig- 
nature he vetoed it. The Whig leaders were greatly dis- 
concerted, but they sent one of their number to the president 
with the draft of a new bill for a "Fiscal Corporation," omit- 
ting certain features of the first bill and avoiding the use of 
the word bank. Tyler suggested certain further changes in 
the phraseology of the bill, which were promptly agreed to, 
and in due course it passed Congress and was presented again 
for his approval. His resolution wavered and, after several 
days' consideration, finding himself unable to overcome his 
constitutional objections to a bank in any form, he returned 
the bill with his veto. 

The Whigs were thoroughly enraged and all the members 
of the cabinet except Webster resigned, denouncing Tyler's 
bad faith. Clay summoned a party caucus, which formally 
declared that "all political connection between them and 
John Tyler was at an end." Tyler agreed to the repeal of the 
subtreasury act and the following year signed the tariff act of 
August 30, 1842, which reestablished the protective principle. 

Webster had remained in Tyler's cabinet partly because 
he did not care to acknowledge Clay's leadership 
and partly because of important negotiations then webster- 
pending with Great Britain. The boundary be- Ashburton 
twecn Maine and New Brunswick as defined 
in the treaty of 1783 had been the subject of serious dis- 



292 



Sectional Divergence 



piite. Maine settlers had pushed into the valley of the 
Aroostook, the ownership of which was in dispute, and in 1838 
and 1839 a border warfare was imminent. The legislature of 
Maine made an appropriation for defense and Congress 
authorized the president to resist any attempt of Great 
Britain to enforce exclusive jurisdiction over the disputed 

territory. General Scott 
was sent to the scene of 
action and put a stop 
to the so-called "Aroos- 
took War" by arranging 
a truce and joint occu- 
pation until the m.atter 
could be adjusted diplo- 
matically. 

When Webster became 
secretary of state he took 
the matter up and finally 
on August 9, 1842, signed 
with Lord Ashburton a 
treaty, which adjusted 
satisfactorily not only the 
Maine boundary, but 
the boundary from Lake 
Superior to the Lake of 
the Woods and as far west as the Rocky Mountains. The 
treaty also contained a clause binding the two parties to 
maintain on the African coast large enough squadrons to 
suppress effectually the slave trade. 

A few months after the signature of the treaty with Eng- 
land Webster resigned from the cabinet and was succeeded 
The Texas by A. P. Upshur of Virginia. Having been repu- 
question diated by the Whigs, Tyler was now trying to 
build up a Democratic party of his own, but most of the old 
Jackson men held aloof. The annexation of Texas had now 




Damkl \\'e13«TEK. 



Period of the Mexican War 293 

become a leading political issue and on this question he hoped 
to unite the South behind him. But for the opposition of the 
antislavcry people Texas would have been annexed in 1837. 
But Jackson, as we have seen, thought it prudent to postpone 
the question and avoid making it a political issue. 

Tyler's attention was drawn to Texas by the intrigues 
of Great Britain and France with the officials of that republic 
and with Mexico, intrigues which recent investigations show 
were more hostile to the United States than even Tyler sup- 
posed. Upshur was secretly negotiating a treaty of annexa- 
tion when he and the secretary of the navy were blown up 
by an accidental explosion on the gunboat Princeton in 
February, 1844. Calhoun was now invited to accept the 
position of secretary of state and the treaty was concluded 
April 13, but it was rejected by the Senate. The question 
of annexation became the leading issue in the presidential 
campaign which was just opening. 

The annexation of Texas was inevitable. So f^r from being 
forced on the country as the result of a slaveholders' con- 
spiracy, it was a perfectly natural step in Ameri- 
can expansion and but for the growing antislavery jgaders^^'^^ 
sentiment it would have encountered little oppo- threaten 
sition outside of New England. As soon as it j|"^^^°°' 
became known in 1843 that Tyler was contemplat- 
ing annexation, John Quincy Adams, who had tried to pur- 
chase Texas when president, presented the following resolu- 
tion to the committee on Foreign Relations : "That any at- 
tempt of the government of the United States, by an act of 
Congress or by treaty, to annex to this Union the republic 
of Texas, or the people thereof, would be a violation of the 
Constitution of the United States, null and void, and to 
which the free States of this Union and their people ought not 
to submit." The committee refused to report the resolution 
to the House, but Adams, Giddings, and other antislavery 
leaders issued an address to the people of the free States, de- 



294 Sectional Diverg-ence 



&'■ 



daring "that annexation, effected by any act or proceeding 
of the Federal government, or any of its departments, would 
be identical with dissolution," that "it would be a violation of 
our national compact" to which they were confident the 
people of the free States would not submit, and that it would 
not only result in a dissolution of the Union, but fully jus- 
tify it. 

The Webster-Ashburton treaty had agreed upon the 49th 
parallel as the boundary between the United States and 
The Oregon Canada from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky 
question Mountains. West of the mountains the Oregon 
country was still in dispute. The claims of the United 
States were based on Captain Gray's discovery of the 
Columbia River in 1791, the expedition of Lewis and Clark, 
and the Florida treaty, in which Spain had accepted the 42d 
parallel as the northern boundary of her possessions. The 
British claims were based on the voyage of Captain Cook in 
1778 and on' the trading stations established in the region by 
the Hudson Bay Company. Russia had also laid claim to 
the region, but England and the United States had united 
in opposing her, and by treaties of 1824 and 1825 she had 
abandoned all claim to the coast south of 54° 40'. In 1818 
England and the United States had agreed to the joint occu- 
pation of the territory without prejudice to the claims of 
either party and this arrangement had been continued indef- 
initely in 1827, subject to termination on twelve months' 
notice by either party. 

By 1844 a large number of Americans had gone to Oregon, 
especially from Missouri, and they urged the government 
to look out for their interests. The United States had been 
willing to adopt the 49th parallel as the boundary, but Eng- 
land had rejected this proposition, as she wanted her posses- 
sions to extend as far south as the Colnmbia River. Ameri- 
cans now began to claim the whole of Oregon, and the 
question was united with that of Texas annexation. "Fifty- 



Period of the Mexican War 295 

four Forty or Fight" became one of the slogans of the cam- 
paign of 1844. 

When the Democratic convention met in Baltimore, May 
27, 1844, it was found that a majority of the delegates were 
committed to Van Buren, who still retained his Tt,„ „„„,-„„ 

' 1 he nonuna- 

hold on the party organization and still had the tionofPoik, 
backing of Andrew Jackson. The two-thirds rule '^ ^^ 
had in previous conventions been applied in the selection of 
the vice-president, but there had never been any balloting 
in nominating a candidate for the presidency and Van Buren's 
friends held that there was no reason why it should be ap- 
plied. After a discussion lasting the greater part of two days 
the two-thirds rule was finally reaffirmed. This action de- 
feated Van Buren, for he had written a letter shortly before 
the meeting of the convention in which he had opposed the 
annexation of Texas on the ground that it could not be ac- 
complished without a war with Mexico, and he could not 
command enough Southern delegates to give him the neces- 
sary two-thirds vote. 

An effort was then made to nominate Lewis Cass of Michi- 
gan, while R. M. Johnson and James Buchanan each had a 
strong following also. The name of James K. Polk of Ten- 
nessee was presented to the convention on the eighth ballot 
and on the ninth he was nominated. He had served for a 
time as speaker of the House and had also been governor of 
Tennessee, but he had never been seriously considered for the 
presidency and his nomination was a surprise to the country. 
He was the first "dark horse." George M. Dallas of Pennsyl- 
vania was nominated for the vice-presidency. The plat- 
form urged the "re-occupation of Oregon and the re-annexa- 
tion of Texas at the earliest practicable period." 

The Whig convention had been held in Baltimore four 
weeks before the Democratic convention, and Henry Clay 
had been nominated by acclamation. He had expected to 
be opposed by Van Buren and he had taken substantially the 



296 Sectional Divergence 

same attitude on the Texas question. Polk's open advocacy 
of annexation threatened to draw off Clay's Southern follow- 

The can- ^"^' ®° ^^^^ ^^ ^^® campaign advanced Clay wrote 
didacyof letters to his Southern friends in which he tried to 
Clay and the hg^jgy q^ the question of annexation. While this 

outcome or . . ^ 

the shifting of position enabled him to carry North 

campaign Carolina and Tennessee it caused him to lose New 
York, where the Abolitionist candidate drew enough of his 
strength to give the State to Polk. 

Polk, also, had to do some hedging on the tariff question 
in order to hold Pennsylvania, but expansion was the para- 
mount issue and on this issue Polk was elected, receiving 170 
electoral votes to Clay's 105. The Abolitionist party, which 
had received about 7000 votes in 1840, again nominated 
Birney on a stirring platform and received over 65,000 votes. 

The election had settled the question of the annexation 
of Texas, and Tyler, who was now working with the Demo- 
crats, without waiting for Polk to come into office, 
Annexation , -ii i/^ -ii ci- 

of Texas, humed through Congress m the last days of his 
March I, administration a bill providing for the annexation 
of Texas by joint resolution. It provided that 
Texas should be admitted as a State and that with her 
consent four other States might be formed out of her territory, 
but that in any State so formed north of the Missouri Com- 
promise line neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should 
be permitted. The Republic of Texas agreed to the pro- 
posed terms, adopted a State constitution, and by joint reso- 
lution of December 29, 1845, was admitted into the Union as 
the State of Texas. 

It was formerly the practice of American historians to 
portray Polk as a man of second-rate ability and to denounce 
The admin- ^^^^ Mexican War, which was the most important 
istrationof event of his administration, as a national crime 
° into which he ruthlessly led the country. As a 

matter of fact few, if any, presidents have carried out pre- 



\ 



Period of the Mexican War 297 

determined policies with greater success or ruled their party 
with a stronger will. The Mexican War was the necessary- 
result of the annexation of Texas, as both Clay and Van 
Buren had foreseen and asserted in the early stages of the 
presidential campaign, and Polk was no more responsible for 
it than the thousands of his fellow citizens who had voted for 
him. Polk selected an able cabinet. James Buchanan 
became secretary of state, Robert J. Walker secretary of the 
treasury, William L. Marcy secretary of war, John Y. Mason 
attorney-general, and George Bancroft secretary of the navy. 
In 1846 Bancroft was sent as minister to England, but during 
his term in the cabinet he succeeded in getting Congress to 
establish the Naval Academy at Annapolis. 

While Polk had tried to avoid taking a positive stand on 
the tariff. Secretary Walker, who professed to be an advocate 
of free trade, suggested in his first report a reduc- The tariff 
tion of the duties, and a bill drawn at his dictation *^* °^ ^^46 
was enacted into law July 30, 1846. As a matter of fact, it 
was far from being a free trade measure, for it still afforded 
a considerable degree of protection, but it proved to be a very 
satisfactory law and continued in force until 1857, when the 
duties were still further lowered. The reduction of the tariff 
caused the Democrats to lose Pennsylvania at the Congres- 
sional election of 1846 and at the presidential election of 1848. 
Another measure of importance of about the same date was 
the reenactment of the independent treasury act, which the 
Whigs had repealed in 1841. This method of handling the 
public funds, first suggested by Van Buren, now became a 
permanent policy. 

Before the close of Tyler's administration Congress under- 
took to carry out the pledge of the Democratic Adjustment 
platform relating to Oregon, and the House passed of the 
a bill February 3, 1845, providing for the organi- ^J'tg^by '^''" 
zation of a territorial government with the parallel treaty, June 
of 54° 40' as the northern limit, but the Senate ^^' '^^^ 



298 Sectional Divers^ence 



i^^ 



refused to concur. When Polk came into office he took the 
matter up with vigor. He first offered to compromise with 
England on the line of the 49th degree, and when this offer 
was declined he asked permission of Congress to give the 
necessary notice for the termination of the joint-occupation 
agreement, to provide for the military defense of the terri- 
tory, and to extend over it the laws of the United States. In 
April, 1846, notice was given to England, but at the same time 
the hope was expressed that the matter might be adjusted 
diplomatically. 

As Polk had correctly surmised, England had no intention 
of going to war over the dispute, and as soon as it was evident 
that the United States was in earnest she gracefully yielded 
and accepted the terms which had first been proposed. By 
the treaty of June 15, 1846, the boundary was fixed at the 
49th parallel. As war with Mexico was now imminent, the 
public generally approved of the compromise, though the 
criticism was made by some at the North that the South, 
having secured in Texas a large addition to slave territory, 
was now indifferent about the expansion of free territory. 

As Mexico had never recognized the independence of the 
Republic of Texas, she protested against its annexation to 
Causes of ^^^ United States and promptly withdrew her 
the Mexican minister from Washington. The rupture of diplo- 

" matic relations under such circumstances usually 

leads to war and it did so in this case. Furthermore a mass 
of claims of American citizens against Mexico had accumu- 
lated in the State Department, and Mexico had persistently 
refused to recognize them or to submit them to arbitration. 

As Mexico refused to be reconciled to the loss of Texas and 
its annexation to the United States, she refused, of course, 
The south- ^^ agree upon any boundary. Santa Anna had 
era bound- agreed to the Rio Grande as the southwestern 
aryof exas j^Qy^^iary of Texas, but his entire arrangement 
had been repudiated by Mexico. As a Mexican province 



Period of the Mexican War 299 

Texas had extended only to the Nueces River. The southern 
bank of the Nueces was occupied by the Texans, but from 
that point to the Rio Grande the region was uninhabited. 
When Polk came into office he determined to adjust these 
matters and also, if possible, to acquire California, which was 
sparsely settled and not likely to continue in the hands of a 
weak power like Mexico. Polk had the foresight to see the 
immense importance to the United States of the Pacific coast. 
Had Great Britain been permitted to acquire the whole of 
Oregon, she would inevitably have acquired California too 
and thus shut us off entirely from the Pacific. Negotiations 
with Great Britain and with Mexico were simultaneously 
pushed by him with characteristic vigor. 

Polk hoped to arrive at an amicable adjustment with 
Mexico, but in case diplomacy failed he was prepared for war. 
In November, 1845, he dispatched John Slidell sudeU's 
to Mexico with the hope of reestablishing diplo- °"ssion 
matic relations. Slidell was instructed to bring to the atten- 
tion of the Mexican government the claims of American citi- 
zens and the question of the Texas boundary, and to offer 
$30,000,000 for Cahfornia and New Mexico. In case Mexico 
was willing to sell this territory and accept the Rio Grande 
boundary, the United States would agree to assume the 
claims of its citizens. The Mexican government refused to 
receive Slidell or to entertain his proposals. 

Meanwhile, General Zachary Taylor was stationed with a 

force of 3500 men on the southern bank of the Nueces River, 

having been sent there as soon as annexation was 

decided on for the purpose of guarding the frontier ^^y^jf^ 

against invasion. As soon as the failure of Sli- occupies the 

dell's mission became known, Polk ordered Tavlor f'!^"*®'^ 

' • area 

to advance to the north bank of the Rio Grande. 
The order was promptly obeyed and Taylor stationed his 
troops in a commanding position opposite Matamoros, where 
the principal Mexican force was concentrated. The Mexican 



300 Sectional Divergence 

general regarded this as an invasion of Mexican territory and 
notified General Taylor that he must break his camp within 
twenty-four hours and retire beyond the Nueces River. 

This of course he refused to do and on the 24th of April 
a Mexican force crossed over to the north bank of the river 
War and fell on an American detachment, which they 

declared captured after killing or wounding sixteen men. 
In his message of May 11, 1846, the president laid these facts 
before Congress, together with the papers relating to Slidell's 
mission, and declared that war existed "by the act of Mexico 
herself," that she had "invaded our territory and shed 
American blood upon American soil." Two days later 
Congress passed an act for the prosecution of the Mexican 
War, authorizing the enlistment of 50,000 men and appro- 
priating $10,000,000. 

When hostilities began General Taylor had to fall back 
to protect his base of supplies, but he soon advanced again 
General ^^^ ^^ ^^^ battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la 
Taylor's Palma on May 8 and 9 defeated and routed a 
a vance Mexican force of nearly double his number 
under General Arista. He then crossed the river and on the 
18th occupied Matamoros. His force was soon increased to 
12,000, only half of whom, however, were properly equipped. 
On September 24, after three days of continuous fighting, he 
captured Monterey, which was strongly fortified and held 
by a force of 10,000 men under General Ampudia. He then 
advanced to Saltillo and Victoria, while the navy took pos- 
session of Tampico. 

As the Mexican government was not yet inclined to come 
to terms, President Polk decided to send an expedition against 
the City of Mexico by way of Vera Cruz. Tajdor was a Whig 
and his victories had brought him such great popularity that 
his name was already being mentioned for the presidency. 
Polk concluded that Taylor had won glory enough for one 
man, and not being able to find a Democrat in the army to 



r 



Period of the Mexican War 301 

whom he could entrust the command of the new expedition, 
he was finally forced to give it to another Whig, General Win- 
field Scott. At the same time Taylor was ordered to send 
a large part of his force to join Scott. A copy of this order 
fell into the hands of the Mexicans and General Santa Anna 
at once decided to concentrate his forces in the north and 
crush Taylor before Scott could advance against the City 
of Mexico. As Santa Anna approached with 20,000 men, 
Taylor took a strong position in the pass of Buena Vista, 
where he was attacked February 23, 1847, and although 
oUtnuml)ered four to one, he held his position against a fierce 
assault that lasted for two days. As Scott's expedition was 
about to land at Vera Cruz, Santa Anna hastened back to 
the defense of the capital, and Taylor remained in undis- 
turbed control of the region south of the Rio Grande. 

Meanwhile Colonel Stephen Kearney had left Fort Leaven- 
worth for California with a small force shortly after war 
was declared, and after taking possession of Santa 
Fe had continued his march to San Diego by way pationof 
of the Gila Valley. When he reached California California, 
in December, 1846, he found that the American 
fleet had already taken possession of San Francisco and 
Monterey and that most of the Mexican garrisons had been 
driven from the country. This result had been brought 
about by the combined efforts of the navy and a small force 
of Americans raised by Captain John C. Fremont, who had 
crossed the continent on an exploring expedition with a view 
to locating an overland route from the Mississippi to the 
Pacific. Commodore Stockton had appointed Fremont gov- 
ernor of California and the latter was not disposed to recog- 
nize Kearney's superior authority. In fact he had to be 
placed under arrest before Kearney could proceed to organize 
a provisional government in accordance with his instructions. 
Thus the vast region of California and New Mexico was 
won by a few hundred men with little effort or loss of life. 



302 



Sectional Divergence 



General Scott's expedition of 12,000 men landed a few 
miles south of Vera Cruz, March 9, 1847, and three weeks 
Scott's later forced the town to surrender with its garri- 

expedition gon of 5000 men and 400 guns. Although not 
fully prepared for an immediate advance, Scott had to hurry 
his troops away from the coast in order to avoid the yellow 
fever season, which was fast approaching. To reach the 
City of Mexico Scott's army had to march 280 miles along a 

road which zigzags over lofty 
mountain ranges and reaches at 
one of the passes an elevation of 
10,000 feet. The City of Mexico 
itself is about 7000 feet above 
the sea level. 

At Cerro Gordo, where the 
road from the coast enters the 
mountains. General Santa Anna 
collected an army of 12,000 men 
to contest the American advance. 
In a three days' fight, April 
17-19, General Scott forced the 
Mexican position, captured 3000 
men, and completely routed the 
rest of the army. General Santa Anna collected a part of 
his scattered forces at Pueblo, but soon retired to the City 
of Mexico. On May 15 the American army occupied the 
city of Pueblo. Here Scott had to remain for three months, 
as the terms of about one third of his troops had expired 
and he had to wait for the arrival of new recruits. Mean- 
while peace negotiations were undertaken without result 
by Nicholas P. Trist, chief clerk of the State Department, 
who had accompanied the army with the draft of a treaty 
in his pocket. 

Early in August the army resumed its march against the 
City of Mexico, but Santa Anna had gathered together an 




General Winfield Scott. 



I 



Period of the Mexican War 303 

army of 20,000 men and the direct approach to the city 

was strongly guarded. Scott decided, therefore, to make 

a detour to the south and approach the city from 

that direction. After inflicting heavy losses on thTcityof 

the Mexicans in hard-fought battles at Contreras Mexico, 

and Churubusco, Scott consented to a truce, ^f^ttf-" 
' ' 14, 1047 

hoping that the Mexicans would come to terms 
and avoid an assault on the city. As it was evident that the 
Mexicans were merely playing for time, operations were 
resumed on the 8th of September and on the 13th Chapulte- 
pec, a natural fortress of great strength mounted by batteries 
and strongly manned, was carried by assault. The Ameri- 
cans were now at the gates of the city, and on the following 
day it was surrendered, Santa Anna having withdrawn during 
the night. 

General Scott had become greatly provoked with Trist, who 
had been sent along with the expedition to negotiate terms 
of peace at the earliest practicable moment, and xhe treaty 
he complained to the president that peace nego- ofGuada- 
tiations were interfering with military operations, gf^aieo 
An order was finally sent for Trist's recall, but February 2, 
when it arrived he was satisfied that the Mexicans ^^ 
were at last willing to come to terms and he continued the 
negotiations, which resulted in the signing of the treaty of 
peace at the Httle town of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2 
1848. Trist was finally arrested and sent back to the United 
States, but his treaty was submitted by the president to the 
Senate and ratified. 

The Texas boundary was fixed at the Rio Grande, and 
New Mexico and California were ceded to the United States 
in return for a payment of $15,000,000. The United States 
also agreed to assume the claims of its citizens against Mexico. 
The unparalleled success of the American arms had led to a 
demand for the annexation of the whole of Mexico, but Polk 
adhered strictly to his original purpose. Rarely has a vie- 



( 



Period of the Mexican War 303 

army of 20,000 men and the direct approach to the city 

was strongly guarded. Scott decided, therefore, to make 

a detour to the south and approach the city from 

that direction. After inflicting heavy losses on tjfj'^^y °f 

the Mexicans in hard-fought battles at Contreras Mexico, 

and Churubusco, Scott consented to a truce, ^p^®™5" 

. 14. 1047 

hoping that the Mexicans would come to terms 

and avoid an assault on the city. As it was evident that the 
Mexicans were merely playing for time, operations were 
resumed on the 8th of September and on the 13th Chapulte- 
pec, a natural fortress of great strength mounted by batteries 
and strongly manned, was carried by assault. The Ameri- 
cans were now at the gates of the city, and on the following 
day it was surrendered, Santa Anna having withdrawn during 
the night. 

General Scott had become greatly provoked with Trist, who 
had been sent along with the expedition to negotiate terms 
of peace at the earliest practicable moment, and xhe treaty 
he complained to the president that peace nego- of Guada- 
tiations were interfering with military operations, ^fdaigo 
An order was finally sent for Trist's recall, but February 2, 
when it arrived he was satisfied that the Mexicans '^ 
were at last willing to come to terms and he continued the 
negotiations, which resulted in the signing of the treaty of 
peace at the little town of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2 
1848. Trist was finally arrested and sent back to the United 
States, but his treaty was submitted by the president to the 
Senate and ratified. 

The Texas boundary was fixed at the Rio Grande, and 
New Mexico and California were ceded to the United States 
in return for a payment of $15,000,000. The United States 
also agreed to assume the claims of its citizens against Mexico. 
The unparalleled success of the American arms had led to a 
demand for the annexation of the whole of Mexico, but Polk 
adhered strictly to his original purpose. Rarely has a vie- 



304 Sectional Divergence 



to" 



toi'ious nation displayed such moderation. Polk was not 
influenced by the foolish clamor against hauling down the 
flag which half a century later influenced McKinlej^ in his 
decision concerning the Philippines. The war had been well 
fought. Grant, who took part in the operations against 
Mexico, said years afterwards that he regarded the strategy 
and tactics of Scott as faultless. Besides Grant, many others 
who became leaders in the Civil War received their training 
under Scott and Taylor, among them Robert E. Lee, Stone- 
wall Jackson, Jefferson Davis, Joseph E. Johnston, George 
H. Thomas, George B. McClellan, H. W. Halleck, and 
George G. Meade. 

With the annexation of Texas and California, the westward 
movement received a new stimulus. The discovery of gold 

Tv,^„^™ in California early in 1848, about the time that 
The new •' ' 

westward the treaty was signed, caused a rush of settlers 
movement ^^^ adventurers from all parts of America and 
Europe to that region. In two years the population of 
California had grown to 100,000. In order to get there 
the gold-hunter and the settler had to take the long and 
difficult sea voyage around the Horn, or risk the terrors 
of yellow fever in crossing the isthmus, or encounter the 
hardships and dangers of a six months' journey across the 
continent. 

The acquisition of California at once drew the attention 
of the government to the future importance of the inter- 
oceanic canal routes, and steps were immediately taken to 
secure permanent rights of way. In 1846 a treaty 

Negotiations . i-itvt^ ii ± r^ i 

for an was Signed with New Granada, the present Colom- 

isthmian ]^[q^^ j^y ^hich the United States acquired a right 
of way across the isthmus of Panama by any mode 
of communication then in existence or that might be sub- 
sequently developed. In 1850 the United States and Eng- 
land signed the much discussed Clayton-Bulwer treaty, by 
the terms of which England surrendered certain rights which 



Period of the Mexican War 305 

she had acquired in Central America and the United States 
agreed that any canal that might be built through Nicaragua 
or at any other point connecting the two oceans should be 
under the joint control of the two powers. 

The Middle West was now expanding and filling up with 
people at a rapid rate. Several causes combined to make 
the forties and the fifties an era of development The buiid- 
and progress. In the first place railroads were ingof 
rapidlj^ taking the place of canals as means of ^^^^°^^^ 
transportation, thus spreading the population more evenly 
over the country and enabling it to leave the rivers and 
waterways. The first steam locomotive used in this country 
was invented by Peter Cooper in 1830 and made its first trip 
from Baltimore to EUicott City, Maryland. This was the 
beginning of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. In 1843 a line 
was completed from Charleston, South Carolina, to Augusta, 
Georgia. In 1832 a little road was built from Albany to 
Schenectady, which was the beginning of the New York 
Central. 

By 1840 it was possible to travel by rail from New York 
to Wilmington, North Carolina. Pittsburg was reached by 
the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1852, and Wheeling by the 
Baltimore and Ohio in 1853. In 1854 the Charleston and 
Savannah Railroad was completed to Chattanooga, and in 
1858 it was continued to Memphis. During the fifties the 
Illinois Central and other western roads were built with the 
aid of land grants, and by 1860 the Middle West was well 
provided with railroads. During the thirties and forties 
the canal was the principal means of transportation, but dur- 
ing the fifties the railroad nlileage was extended from about 
5000 to over 25,000. With the railroad came also the tele- 
graph, invented by Morse in 1844. Within ten or fifteen 
years all the principal cities were connected by telegraphic 
communication. 

Improvements in agricultural implements kept pace with 



306 Sectional Divergence 

improvements in the means of transportation. The iron 

plow, with detachable parts which could be renewed when 

^ , broken or worn out, came into general use ; thresh- 

Develop- . 

ment of ing machines of various kinds supplanted the older 

western methods of separating the grain from the straw and 
agriculture jr o o 

chaff ; and finally the reaper brought about the great- 
est change that had ever taken place in agricultural methods. 

The first successful reaper was invented by Cyrus Hall 
McCormick, of Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1831. 
Scores of reaping machines had been invented in this country 
and abroad, but none of them proved successful. Young 
McCormick, who had assisted his father in the construction 
of an unsuccessful reaper at the forge on his farm, finally 
invented the type of machine which is now used the world 
over. In 1834 he took out his first patent, but it was several 
years before the machine was perfected. In 1844 he made 
a trip through the West and was quick to grasp the immense 
possibiUties of the reaper on the vast prairies of that region. 
He moved at once to Cincinnati and later to Chicago and be- 
gan the manufacture of reapers on a large scale. The 
reaper, while useful everywhere, was an inestimable boon to 
the West, for it enabled the farmers to put in vast crops of 
grain on the prairies which it would have been impossible, 
where labor was scarce, to gather in by means of the old 
cradle. The reaper was one of the greatest factors in the 
rapid development of the West. 

In the forties foreign immigration began to assume large 
proportions. In 1842 over 100,000 foreigners came to our 
Foreign im- shores and in 1854 the number exceeded 400,000. 
migration ^his movement was due primarily to the famine 
in Ireland and the revolutions in Germany, but it was accel- 
erated by the rapid extension of the American frontier. Some 
of the immigrants remained in the Eastern States, where they 
took the place of the native-born Americans who were mov- 
ing to the West. This was especially true of the Irish. The 



Period of the Mexican War 397 

Germans, on the other hand, preferred going directly to the 
frontier and they played an important part in the develop- 
ment of some of the Western States. Between 1830 and 1850 
six new States were admitted to the Union ; Arkansas in 1836, 
Michigan in 1837, Florida and Texas in 1845, Iowa in 1846, 
and Wisconsin in 1848. 

TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. Tyler's Break with the Whigs: Wilson, Division and Reunion, 
pp. 133-139; Garrison, Westward Extension, Chaps. Ill, IV; 
McMaster, Vol. VI, pp. 601-637 ; Schouler, Vol. IV, pp. 367-395 ; 
Roosevelt, Thomas Hart Benton, Chap. XI. 

2. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty : Garrison, Chap. V ; McMas- 
ter, Vol. VII, pp. 271-284 ; Schouler, Vol. IV, pp. 396-404 ; Foster, 
Century of American Diplomacy, pp. 282-298; J. S. Reeves, Ameri- 
can Diplomacy under Tyler and Polk, Chaps. I, II. 

3. Texas and Oregon : Wilson, pp. 141-148 ; Garrison, Chaps. 
VI-XI ; Stanwood, History of the Presidency, Chap. XVII ; McEl- 
roy. Winning of the Far West, Chaps. Ill, IV; McMaster, Vol. 
VII, pp. 286-367, 391-420 ; Schouler, Vol. IV, pp. 457-491 ; Reeves, 
Chaps. VII-X ; Justin H. Smith, Annexation of Texas. 

4. Causes of the Mexican War : Garrison, Chaps. XIII, XIV ; 
McElroy, Chap. V ; McMaster, Vol. VII, pp. 432-439 ; Schouler, Vol. 
IV, pp. 495-527 ; Reeves, Chap. XII ; G. Hunt, John C. Calhoun, 
Chaps. XVII, XVIII ; President Polk's War Message of May 11, 
1846, in Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Vol. IV, pp. 437-443: 

5. Military Operations : Garrison, Chap. XV ; McElroy, Chaps. 
VI, VIII, IX-XI; McMaster, Vol. VII, pp. 440-461, 506-509; 
Schouler, Vol. IV, pp. 535-550, Vol. V, pp. 1-61. 

6. The Occupation of California : McElroy, Chap. VII ; McMas- 
ter, Vol. VII, pp. 462-472, 585-614 ; Schouler, Vol. IV, pp. 528- 
535; Reeves, Chap. XI; E. D. Adams, British Interests and 
Activities in Texas, Chap. XI. 

7. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: McElroy, Chap. XII; 
McMaster, Vol. VII, pp. 509-525; J. B. Moore, American Diplo- 
macy, pp. 234-236 ; Reeves, Chap. XIII. 

8. Transportation and Western Development: McMaster, 
Vol. VII, pp. 190-220; E. L. Bogart, Economic History of the 

United States, Part III ; K. Coman, Industrial History of the 
United States, Chap. VIII ; Callender, Economic History, Chap. VIII. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES 

From the Missouri Compromise to the beginning of the 
Mexican War there was an effort to exclude all direct dis- 
Eariy op- cussion of slavery from the halls of Congress. An 
position to active antislaverj^ propaganda was, however, car- 
s avery ^.|g^| ^^ outside of Congress and was now assuming 

formidable proportions. The first opposition to slavery came 
from the Quakers of Pennsylvania in the eighteenth century. 
At the time of the Revolution, Jefferson, Mason, and most 
of the leading statesmen of Virginia regarded slavery as a 
moral and social evil and looked forward to a not far distant 
emancipation. 

What to do with the emancipated slave, was the question 
which none could solve. An earnest attempt was made 
to colonize the free negroes in Africa by the American Colo- 
nization Society which was formed in 1816. The plan was 
officially endorsed by Virginia, Georgia, Maryland, Tennes- 
see, and Vermont, and by the United States government, 
which extended its protection to Liberia, the territory on the 
west coast of Africa selected by the Society as the site for 
its colony. Several thousand negroes were sent over to Li- 
beria, but large numbers of them succumbed to the African 
fevers and this deterred others from going, even had the 
Society been able to raise the necessary funds. The coloniza- 
tion scheme was a noble effort on the part of Southern states- 
men and Northern philanthropists to solve the problem. 
Among the presidents of the Society were Monroe, Madison, 
Marshall, and Henry Clay, who was one of its most earnest 
promoters. 

308 



Slavery in the Territories 309 

The movement against slavery was now world-wide. In 
1832, after a long and memorable contest, the British Par- 
liament abolished slavery in the British West ^j^^ 
Indies and appropriated $100,000,000 to compen- abolition 
sate the owners. Within the next twenty years ™°v«™^°* 
most of the other European countries abolished slavery in 
their colonies. In 1831 William Lloyd Garrison founded in 
Boston the Liberator, a paper devoted to the immediate and 
unconditional abolition of slavery in the United States, and 
in 1833 the American Antislavery Society was organized 
with the same object in view. Since the Constitution pro- 
tected slavery, Garrison denounced the Union as "a covenant 
with death" and the Constitution as "an agreement with 
hell." 

The program of the abolitionists was to arouse public opin- 
ion at the North and to distribute literature among the slaves 
of the South in order to create in them a longing for liberty. 
Later the "Underground Railroad" was organized for the 
purpose of enabling slaves to escape from their masters. 
Secret agents conducted them at night from point to point, 
supplying their wants and concealing them during the day at 
appointed stations, until they were safely across the border 
in Canada. 

Garrison's crusade naturally created great indignation at 
the South, and when, a few months after the founding of 
the Liberator, a slave insurrection broke out in The South- 
Virginia, it was generally believed that it had been ampton in- 
instigated by the abolitionists. In August, 1831, iSai.and 
Nat Turner, a negro preacher of Southampton the debate 
County, with the assistance of a small band of the Virginia 
slaves, suddenl}^ began murdering the white people legislature 
in his community, and before steps could be taken to arrest 
them sixty-one persons, mostly women and children, had 
been barbarously slain. This was the most serious slave 
insurrection that had ever been known in the South and it 



310 Sectional Divergence 

led to a memorable discussion of the whole slavery question 
at the next session of the Virginia legislature. In January, 
1832, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, a grandson of Jefferson, 
proposed to submit to the voters of the State a plan for freeing 
all slaves born after July 4, 1840, and for removing them be- 
yond the limits of the United States. The question occupied 
the attention of the legislature for weeks and the debate at- 
tracted the attention of the entire country, but the committee 
to whom the plan was referred finally reported adverse^ by 
a majority of one vote. 

In the northern tier of slave States thousands of slaves 
were freed by the voluntary action of their masters. In 
The prob- Virginia alone more slaves were freed by voluntary 
lemofthe emancipation between the Revolution and the 
ree negro Qiyji War than were freed in the entire North by 
statute. The presence of the free negro in slave communities 
presented a serious problem, and most of the Southern States 
found it necessary to place restrictions on emancipation, for- 
bidding it altogether unless the freedmen were removed be- 
yond the limits of the State. 

John Randolph, who died in 1833, provided in his will 
for the emancipation of all his slaves and directed his execu- 
tors to purchase lands for them north of the Ohio. His 
executors bought a large tract of land in the State of Ohio and 
took the negroes on the long, journey, but at the border of 
the county in which the land lay they were met by men 
armed with rifles who ordered them back and they were not 
allowed to enter. Indiana and Illinois passed laws prohib- 
iting free negroes and mulattoes from settling within their 
borders. If the free negro was considered a menace in the 
free States, it is not strange that he was so considered in 
the slave States. 

The abolition crusade threw the South on the defensive 
and as the Southern members of Congress could not secure 
legislation excluding abolition literature from the mails, the 



Slavery in the Territories 311 

States enacted stricter laws regulating slavery, placing the 
slaves under closer surveillance and forbidding their masters 
to teach them to read. Garrison's movement 
met at first with violent opposition at the North. Garrison^s 
Upon one occasion he narrowly escaped death crusade 
at the hands of a mob in the streets of Boston, soulj^^'^ 
while Elijah P. Lovejoy, the editor of an aboli- 
tionist paper in Illinois, was actually killed by a mob in 
the town where he published his paper. 

The abolitionists flooded Congress with antislavery peti- 
tions until finally in 1836 the House passed a resolution di- 
recting that in future all such petitions be tabled without 
reading. John Quincy Adams considered this action a denial 
of the constitutional right of petition and he soon became the 
channel through which petitions were presented. Day after 
day he would rise in his seat and present petition after peti- 
tion, but the Speaker never let him get beyond the words 
"abolition of slavery." As the number of petitions did not 
diminish and as the so-called " gag rule " merely gave the abo- 
litionists a standing ground of complaint, it was repealed in 
1844. The abolition crusade soon carried the slavery dis- 
cussion into the churches, and between 1840 and 1850 several 
of the religious denominations became divided into Northern 
and Southern branches. 

The growth of the abolition movement and the intolerance 
of the antislavery agitators aroused the sensitiveness of the 
Southern people and drove them first into an apolo- Defense of 
getic position and later into an open defense of slavery 
slavery. William Gilmore Simms wrote in 1852: "Twenty 
years ago, few persons in the South undertook to justify Negro 
slavery, except on the score of necessity. Now, very few 
persons in the same region question their perfect right to the 
labor of their slaves, — and more, — their moral obligation 
to keep them still subject, as slaves, and to compel their labor, 
so long as they remain the inferior beings which we now find 



312 Sectional Divergence 

them, and which they seem to have been from the beginning. 
This is a great good, the fruit wholly of hostile pressure." 

Slavery was justified by some on grounds of economic 
necessity, by others on grounds of the racial inferiority of the 
negro, and by others on the ground that it was recognized in 
both the Old and the New Testaments. The economic ar- 
gument became especially popular during the forties. It 
was in brief that the prosperity of the South was dependent 
upon staple crops produced by negro labor and that negro 
labor was far more efficient under the slavery system than it 
would be under the wage system. This was doubtless true 
at that time. To the statesmen and philanthropists of the 
South, however, the inferiority of the negro was the main 
reason for keeping him in bondage. To their minds the 
negro problem loomed up larger than the slavery problem. 
The abolitionist believed that by freeing the slave the problem 
would be solved. The Southerner, on the other hand, be- 
lieved that the free negro would present a far more serious 
problem socially and politically than the slave. 

Any statesmanlike solution of the problem seemed now 
hopeless. National emancipation, even with compensation 
Calhoun's to the slave owners, would have produced an in- 
position dustrial revolution, the outcome of which no one 
could foresee, besides leaving the race problem unsolved. 
Calhoun and other Southern leaders realized that if the 
North, already holding the majority in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, should also acquire control of the Senate, na- 
tional emancipation would sooner or later be attempted. 
In an address to their constituents, signed by forty-eight 
senators and representatives, written by Calhoun, and 
issued in January, 1849, we find these prophetic words : "If 
[emancipation] should be effected, it will be through the 
agency of the Federal Government, controlled by the domi- 
nant power of the Northern States of the Confederacy, against 
the resistance and struggle of the Southern. It can then only 



Slavery in the Territories 313 

be effected by the prostration of the white race ; and that 
would necessarily engender the bitterest feelings of hostility 
between them and the North. But the reverse would be 
the case between the blacks of the South and the people of 
the North. Owing tiieir emancipation to them, they would 
regard them as friends, guardians, and patrons, and centre, 
accordingly, all their sympathy in them. The people of the 
North would not fail to reciprocate and to favor them, in- 
stead of the whites. Under the influence of such feelings, and 
impelled by fanaticism and love of power, they would not 
stop at emancipation. Another step would be taken — to 
raise them to a political and social equality with their 
former owners, by giving them the right of voting and hold- 
ing public offices under the Federal Government. . . . But 
when once raised to an equality, they would become the fast 
political associates of the North, acting and voting with them 
on all questions, and by this political union between them, 
holding the white race at the South in complete subjection. 
The blacks, and the profligate whites that might unite with 
them, would become the principal recipients of federal offices 
and patronage, and would, in consequence, be raised above 
the whites of the South in the political and social scale." 
A more accurate picture of what actually took place during 
the period of Reconstruction it would be difficult to draw. 
Calhoun's only mistake was in supposing that the white 
people of the South could under any conditions be made to 
submit indefinitely to negro rule. In Calhoun's mind there 
were in 1850 two alternatives open to the Southern people, 
either to preserve the balance between the sections in the 
Senate or to form a separate confederacy. 

Shortly after the beginning of the Mexican War, Repre- 
sentative Wilmot of Pennsylvania had moved as an amend- 
ment to an appropriation bill the proviso that TheWUmot 
neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should ^'■°^'^° 
exist in any territory that might be acquired from 



314 Sectional Divergence 



&^ 



Mexico. Although this resolution passed the House, it 
was held up in the Senate and did not become law, but 
it injected the slaveiy issue into the debates of Con- 
gress once more, and the discussion continued without 
intermission and with ever-increasing bitterness until the 
secession of the Southern States. Calhoun dreaded the re- 
opening of the slavery question in Congress, and for that 
reason opposed the Mexican War and the acquisition of 
California and New Mexico. Toombs, Stephens, and other 
Southern Whigs took the same position, but the great major- 
ity of Southern Democrats favored the war and territorial 
expansion. 

The question of slavery in California and New Mexico 
now overshadowed all others. A natural solution would 
have been the extension of the Missouri Compromise line to 
the Pacific, but to this the antislavery North was unalter- 
ably opposed. By Mexican law this region was free, and 
the advocates of the Proviso held that slavery could not be 
introduced except by act of Congress, which they proposed 
to prevent. Calhoun, Jefferson Davis, and other Southern 
leaders claimed, on the contrary, that the institution of 
slavery was a part of the pubhc law of the United States, 
which had been extended over the region by the very act 
of conquest, and that therefore it must be recognized and 
protected. 

A third view, advanced by Lewis Cass, of Michigan, and 

later taken up by Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, was that 

^^ ^ . Congress did not have the right either to legis- 

The doctrine , , . 

of " squatter late slavery mto a territory or out of a territory, 

but that the question should be left for the 
settlers, or "squatters," as they were popularly 
called, to decide for themselves. This view was dubbed 
by its opponents, in derision, the doctrine of "squatter 
sovereignty," but it was called by Douglas "popular sover- 
eignty." Although this view accorded in general with the 



sover- 
eignty 



Slavery in the Territories 315 

doctrine of States' rights, the Southerners were not wilHng 
to admit that the inhabitants of a territory had the right to 
exclude slavery or any other kind of property from the 
common territory of the United States. 

With sectional issues thus pressing themselves on the 
attention of the country it was difficult for either of the two 
great poHtical parties to preserve its aUgnment. ^j^^ j_ 
Both Whigs and Democrats omitted from their dentiai 
platforms all reference to the question of slavery cainpaignof 
in the territories, and tried to conduct the cam- 
paign along the old lines. The Democratic convention met 
in Baltimore in May, 1848, and as Polk did not seek a renomi- 
nation, Lewis Cass, of Michigan, was chosen as the candidate 
for the presidency. This was the first instance of the nomi- 
nation of a Northern man with Southern principles, a policy 
which the Democratic party followed until 1860 with the 
hope of holding its followers in the Northern States. The 
Whigs, on the other hand, who met in convention in Phila- 
delphia in June, nominated General Zachary Taylor, of Loui- 
siana, a large slaveholder, with the object of holding the 
Southern wing of their party. Millard Fillmore, of New 
York, was nominated for vice-president. 

The Democratic party in New York had for some time been 
spUt into two factions, one headed by Marcy and the other 
by Van Buren. The Marcy faction, known as ^^ ^^^^_ 
"Hunkers," had the support of the Tammany tionofthe 
Society and of the practical politicians, while the ^^®"^°'' 
"Barnburners," as the Van Buren faction was 
called, were so bent on reform that they were likened to the 
old Dutch farmer who burned his barn to get rid of the 
rats. The "Barnburners" repudiated the nomination of 
Cass and held a convention at Utica in June, at which they 
nominated Van Buren for the presidency on a platform which 
advocated the Wilmot Proviso. The Abolitionists had 
already nominated John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, but 



316 Sectional Divergence 

they now saw the opportunity to unite the antislavery Dem- 
ocrats and the antislavery Whigs who were disgusted at the 
attempt of both parties to ignore the slavery question. 

A convention was therefore held at Buffalo in August and 
the Free-Soil party was organized, with Van Buren as its 
candidate, on a platform opposing the further extension of 
slavery, — "No more slave States and no more slave terri- 
tory." The new party inscribed on its banner, "Free Soil, 
Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men." Taylor and 
Fillmore were elected, receiving 163 electoral votes to Cass's 
127. The Free-Soilers did not carry a State, but they 
polled nearly 300,000 popular votes, and in several States 
they held the balance between the older parties. 

When the new Congress met in December, 1849, California 
had already called a constitutional convention without 
The Com- waiting for the usual enabling act of Congress and 
promise of had adopted a State constitution, which excluded 
^^^° slavery. The president had given his approval 

to this 'proceeding and he now recommended that CaUfornia 
be admitted as a State. The admission of California as a 
free State would upset the balance in the Senate, on which 
depended the equilibrium of the Union. There were at this 
time fifteen slave and fifteen free States. The Southern 
members of Congress refused to allow Cahfornia to come into 
the Union until the question of slavery in the rest of the Mexi- 
can cession was determined. 

On January 29, 1850, Clay introduced in the Senate a 
series of resolutions as the basis of a compromise. He pro- 
posed that Cahfornia should be admitted under her free 
constitution; that territorial governments should be or- 
ganized in the rest of the Mexican cession without any re- 
striction as to slavery; that the boundary between Texas 
and New Mexico should be adjusted and that Texas should 
be paid $10,000,000 for surrendering her claims to the dis- 
puted area ; that the slave trade should be aboUshed in the 



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Slavery in the Territories 317 

District of Columbia, although it was considered inexpedient 
to abolish slavery there as long as it continued in Mary- 
land ; and that Congress should enact a more stringent fugi- 
tive slave law, making it the duty of United States marshals 
and other federal officials to enforce its provisions. 

The Compromise was debated for months and finally 
enacted in a series of separate measures. It was supported 
in the Senate by Clay, Webster, Cass, and Doug- -j-j^^ debate 
las. It was opposed by Seward, an antislavery on the com- 
Whig, by Chase and Hale, Free-Soilers, by Benton, P"*""^"^ ^ 
an independent Democrat, and by Calhoun and Davis, pro- 
slavery Democrats. Clay, now seventy-four years of age, 
had returned to the Senate after an absence of seven years 
to play once more the part of the "Great Pacificator," and 
he advocated the measure with great earnestness before 
throngs that filled the galleries, the floor, and the lobbies 
of the chamber. 

On March 4, 1850, Calhoun's last formal speech was read 
before the Senate by James M. Mason, of Virginia. Calhoun 
himself was too feeble to deliver it, although he Calhoun's 
was rolled into the chamber in a chair to hear it last speech 
read. Before the end of the month he had passed away. 
In this last speech he declared that the equilibrium between 
the two sections had been destroyed, that the Union was in 
danger, and he appealed to the North, the stronger party, 
to save it. His terms were : " The North must give us equal 
rights in the acquired territory ; she must return our fugitive 
slaves ; she must cease the agitation of the slave question ; 
and she must consent to an amendment to the Constitution, 
which will restore to the South the power she possessed of 
protecting herself before the equilibrium was destroyed by 
the action of this government. The admission of CaUfornia 
will be the test question." He did not explain the nature of 
the amendment, but after his death there was found among 
his papers a plan for two presidents, one from the slave 



318 Sectional Divergence 

and one from the free states, each having a veto on the acts 
of Congress. 

Three days after Calhoun's speech was read Webster spoke. 
He began by saying: "I wish to speak to-day, not as a 
Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but 
Seventh-of- as an American." After reviewing some of the 
March historical aspects of the slavery question he con- 

tinued, "Now as to California and New Mexico, 
I hold slavery to be excluded from those territories by a law 
even superior to that which admits and sanctions it in Texas. 
I mean the law of nature, of physical geography, the law of 
the formation of the earth. That law settles forever, with 
a strength beyond all terms of human enactment, that slav- 
ery cannot exist in California and New Mexico. ... I would 
not take pains uselessly to reaffirm an ordinance of nature, 
nor to reenact the will of God. I would put in no Wilmot 
proviso for the mere purpose of a taunt or reproach." As 
regards fugitive slaves, he expressed the opinion that the 
complaints of the South were just and that the North had 
failed in her duty. Referring to the abolition societies, he 
said : "I think their operations for the last twenty years have 
produced nothing good or valuable." 

This speech brought forth a storm of indignation at the 
North, particularly in New England. Webster's position 
was condemned and he himself severely censured by a gather- 
ing in Faneuil Hall. Referring to his support of the Com- 
promise, Theodore Parker said : " I know no deed in American 
history to which I can compare this but the act of Benedict 
Arnold." Webster was compared to Lucifer, the fallen angel, 
and there was no reaction until his death two years later. 
When that event occurred the revulsion of feeling was sudden 
and complete. "Massachusetts smote and broke the heart 
of Webster, her idol, and then broke her own above his 
grave." There can .be no doubt that Webster's speech was 
prompted by a sincere patriotism and it is equally true that 



Slavery in the Territories 319 

it was based on wise statesmanship, but to such an extent 
had sectional prejudice been aroused that the antislavery 
North was as much opposed to compromise as the pro- 
slavery South. 

There were many other notable speeches on the Com- 
promise. Seward undertook to refute Webster's argument, 
and in the course of his remarks declared that sewardand 
there was "a higher law than the Constitution," ^^^'^ 
a phrase destined to have a moral influence that Seward never 
dreamed of. Jefferson Davis, on whom the mantle of Cal- 
houn was about to fall, also spoke and stated clearly what 
would satisfy the South, — "that is, an equal right to go into 
all territories, all property being alike protected," but he 
added, in default of this, "I will agree to the drawing of the 
line of 36° 30' through the territories acquired from Mexico." 
The proposal to upset the balance between the sections 
in the Senate by the admission of California, without 
any prospect of the admission of another slave State, 
presented such a serious situation that for the TheNash- 
first time at the South secession was now seriously vUie con- 
considered, and at the suggestion of South Caro- 
lina Mississippi called a convention of Southern States to 
meet in Nashville in June, 1850. The Southern Whigs de- 
clined to support this movement, and when the convention 
met there was found to be such a wide divergence of views 
among its members that after adopting resolutions, one of 
which demanded the extension of the Missouri Compromise 
Une to the Pacific, it adjourned to await the action of 
Congress. 

On July 4 President Taylor, who opposed the Compromise 
and favored the Wilmot Proviso, was taken suddenly ill and 
on the 9th he died. Fillmore, who succeeded to ^j^^ (,Qm_ 
the presidency, favored the Compromise. He promise 
completely reorganized his cabinet, making Web- * °p ® 
ster secretary of state. During August and September 



320 Sectional Divergence 

the various parts of the Compromise were put thiough Con- 
gress. In November the Nashville convention reassembled, 
but without a full representation. It passed resolutions 
rejecting the Compromise and calUng on the Southern States 
to summon another convention to take measures to restore the 
rights of the South within the Union if possible, "and if not 
to provide for their safety and independence." The Com- 
promise had by this time so gained in public favor and the 
country was so prosperous that no further action was taken. 

Both the leading parties found it difficult to select candi- 
dates for the campaign of 1852. The Democratic conven- 
The election tion met in Baltimore June 1, and for forty-eight 
of 1852 ballots the votes were divided between Cass, 

Buchanan, and Douglas. Finally on the forty-ninth ballot 
Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, was nominated. He 
was the second "dark horse," a man of good ability and 
winning manners, who had served without distinction in both 
Houses of Congress and had attained the rank of brigadier- 
general in the Mexican War. 

The Whig convention was also held in Baltimore two weeks 
later. Fillmore, Winfield Scott, and Webster were the 
leading candidates. Scott was finally nominated on the fifty- 
third ballot. Both Democrats and Whigs upheld the Com- 
promise in their platforms and deprecated any further agita- 
tion of the slavery question. The Free-Soilers nominated 
John P. Hale. They denied in their platform that the Com- 
promise was a finality, declared that slavery was a sin against 
God and a crime against man, and demanded the immediate 
repeal of the fugitive slave law. 

The Democrats were sincere in their support of the Com- 
promise, while a large body of Whigs led by Seward had 
opposed the endorsement of the fugitive slave law in their 
party platform. The result showed that the great majority 
of the American people favored the Compromise. Pierce 
received 254 electoral votes and Scott 42, while the Free- 



Slavery in the Territories 321 

Soilers polled only a little more than half the number of 
votes they had received four years before. 

Calhoun had died in 1850. Clay and Webster both died 
during the campaign of 1852, Clay in June and Webster in 
October. All had aspired to the presidency, but ^j^^ passing 
none of the three had attained it. Even that high of the old 
office could have added nothing to the permanence ^^^^^'"^ 
or luster of their fame. New leaders were now taking their 
places, leaders bred in the bitterness of sectional controversy, 
men with no less patriotism, perhaps, but with stronger 
prejudices and less patient forbearance. The most promi- 
nent of the new group were Seward, Sumner, Chase, Douglas, 
Davis, and Toombs. 

The year 1852 is also memorable for the appearance of 
Uncle Tom's Cabin, a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe 
dealing with slavery. Although neither a true jj^^^^ 
representation of slavery nor a literary master- Tom's 
piece, this book appealed to the sympathetic im- ^°°^^ 
agination on a subject which the politicians endeavored in 
vain to exclude from public discussion but which "would not 
down." It was read by millions, translated into various 
languages, and had a larger circulation than any other novel 
ever written. It made little impression on the older genera- 
tion, but it was one of the most powerful agencies in keeping 
alive the agitation against slavery and it molded the opinions 
of the younger men who elected Lincoln president in 1860. 



TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. Slavery and Abolition: Wilson, Division and Reunion, Chap. 
Ill; H. A. Herbert, Abolition Crusade and Its Consequences; J. F. 
Rhodes, History of the United States, Vol. I, Chap. I ; A. B. Hart, 
Slavery and Abolition, Chaps. XI-XVIIl ; Munford, Virginia's 
Attitude toward Slavery and Secession, Chap. IX. 

2. Southern Defense of Slavery : Rhodes, Vol. I, pp. 36.5-37.5 ; 
J. C. Reed, The Brothers' War, Chap. XIV; Munford, Chaps. 



322 Sectional Divergence 

XXIII-XXVI ; Jefferson Davis, Rise and Fall of the Confederate 
Government, Vol. I, pp. 3-14 ; U. B. Phillips, Robert Toombs, Chap. 
VII ; The Pro-Slavery Argument, a volume of essays by Chancellor 
Harper, Governor Hammond, Dr. Simms, and Professor Dew 
(18.52). 

3. The Wilmot Proviso : Garrison, Westward Extension, Chap. 
XVI ; Schouler, Vol. IV, p. 543, Vol. V, pp. 66-70, 95-99 ; A. H. 
Stephens, War between the States, Vol. II, pp. 165-170; McMaster, 
Vol. VIII, pp. 1-19. 

4. The Doctrine of Squatter Sovereignty : A. C. McLaughlin, 
Lewis Cass, pp. 231-257; Allen Johnson, Stephen A. Douglas, 
Book TI ; Garrison, pp. 275-278, 300. 

5. The Campaign of 1848: Garrison, Chap. XVII; Stanwood, 
History of the Presidency, Chap. XVIII ; McLaughlin, Lewis Cass, 
Chap. VIII. 

6. The Compromise of 1850: Garrison, Chap. XX; Rhodes, 
Vol. I, Chap. II ; Schouler, Vol. V, pp. 157-198 ; McMaster, Vol. 
VIII, pp. 10-48; Stephens, Vol. II, pp. 176-240; H. C. Lodge, 
Daniel Webster, Chap. IX ; Schurz, Henry Clay, Vol. II, Chap. 
XXVI ; P. Bancroft, William H. Seivard, Vol. I, Chaps, XIV-XVI. 

7. The Election of 1852: T. C. Smith, Parties and Slavery, 
Chap. Ill; Stanwood, Chap. XIX; Rhodes, Vol. I, Chap. Ill; 
McMaster, Vol. VIII, pp. 166-181. 



CHAPTER XIX 
THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT 

Pierce was inaugurated under apparently propitious 
circumstances. The widespread satisfaction with the Com- 
promise of 1850 and the falhng off in the vote a„^„„^^ 
polled by the Free-Soilers seemed to indicate sive foreign 
that the slavery question had been at least tem- ^°^*^^ 
porarily eliminated from national politics. The new ad- 
ministration hoped by the adoption of a bold foreign policy 
to keep the attention of the nation diverted from this issue. 
Under Fillmore Webster and also Everett, who succeeded 
him in the State Department, had tried to handle foreign 
questions in a way to arouse national pride and patriotism 
and their efforts had met with success. 

Soon after Pierce came into office a new treaty was nego- 
tiated with Mexico, by which we acquired an important tract 
of land south of the Gila River in Arizona known as the 
''Gadsden Purchase" ; in 1854 a Canadian reciprocity treaty 
was signed with England ; during the same year. Commo- 
dore Perry forced the ruler of Japan to sign the famous 
treaty which opened up that country to foreign commerce ; 
and a number of other treaties relating to American com- 
merce, to neutral rights, and to extradition were negotiated 
with various powers. William L. Marcy, who directed these 
negotiations, was one of our ablest and most successful 
secretaries of state. Pierce had in his cabinet two other 
men of great ability, Jefferson Davis as secretary of war, 
and Caleb Cushing, of Massachusetts, as attorney-general. 

323 



324 Sectional Divergence 



&' 



In the earlier days Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, and 

other farsighted statesmen had coveted Cuba and regarded 

its annexation to the United States as only a 

The at- . . . 

tempts to question of time. Down to the Mexican War our 
acquire fgaj. ^^g that Cuba might be annexed by England 

or France and our policy was to guarantee the 
possession of the island to Spain. Clay declared as secre- 
tary of state in 1825 that we could not consent to the occu- 
pation of Cuba or Porto Rico ''by any other European 
power than Spain under any contingency whatever," and 
Daniel Webster in 1843, while occupying the same post, as- 
sured Spain that in any attempt to wrest Cuba from her 
"she might securely rely upon the whole naval and military 
resources of this country to aid her in preserving or recover- 
ing it." 

After, the Mexican War American foreign policy assumed 
a much more aggressive character, and Cuba became an 
object of desire not only to the slaveholding population of 
the South, but to a large part of the nation, on account of 
its strategic importance, lying athwart the Gulf of Mexico 
and commanding also the now important interoceanic 
canal routes. Between the Mexican and Civil wars, there- 
fore, repeated efforts were made to purchase the island 
from Spain. In 1848 Secretary Buchanan offered Spain 
$100,000,000 for Cuba, but the offer was indignantly re- 
jected. 

The failure of the purchase scheme was followed by the 
filibustering expeditions of General Lopez in 1850 and 1851, 
in which many Americans participated. Lopez was finally 
captured and executed by the Spanish authorities and 
about fifty Americans were summarily shot without a trial. 
When news of these executions reached New Orleans a mob 
attacked and sacked the Spanish consulate. These incidents 
naturally caused strained relations between the two gov- 
ernments. 



The Irrepressible Conflict . 325 

President Pierce announced in his inaugural address that 
the poHcy of his administration would "not be controlled 
by any timid forebodings of evil from expansion." ^j^^ „ Qg_ 
This was taken to refer to Cuba ; and the ap- tend Mani- 
pointment as minister to Spain of Pierre Soule ^^ °' ^ ^^ 
of Louisiana, a Frenchman by birth and education, who had 
been exiled for political reasons, created an unfavoral:)le im- 
pression in this country and abroad, for his views on the 
Cuban question were well known to be of a radical char- 
acter. Shortly after Soule's arrival at Madrid the two 
countries were brought to the verge of war by the seizure 
in Havana harbor of the Black Warrior, an American ship 
charged with a technical violation of the port regulations. 
The ship and cargo were subsequently restored, but the over- 
zealous handling of the incident by Soule rendered any fur- 
ther negotiations for the purchase of Cuba by him utterly 
useless. \ 

Under these circumstances Marcy directed Soule to con- 
fer with Mason and Buchanan, our ministers at Paris and 
London. The three ministers met at Ostend, a watering 
place in Belgium, in October, 1854, and drew up a report to 
Marcy which was subsequently made public and became 
known as the "Ostend Manifesto." They advised that the 
United States offer Spain a fair price for Cuba, suggesting 
$100,000,000, and in case of her refusal to sell, that the 
United States should seize the island, if the welfare and 
safety of the Union demanded it. Marcy politely but firmly 
repudiated the recommendations of the report, and Soule 
promptly resigned. The manifesto had, however, the de- 
sired effect of helping to secure for James Buchanan the 
Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1856. 

Meanwhile the fugitive slave law had created such in- 
tense opposition in the North that it was found practically 
impossible to enforce it. The "Underground Railroad" was 
very active in the fifties and thousands of slaves were being 



326 



Sectional Divergence 



enticed away from their masters over into the free States. 
When pursued and arrested they were with increasing fre- 
FaUureof Quency rescued from the hands of the officers of 
the fugitive the law and concealed or sent on to Canada, 
s ave aw j^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^j^^^ arose in Boston, Federal troops 
had to be sent to the scene in order to enable an owner to 
reclaim a runaway slave. Most of the Northern States 
nullified the fugitive slave law by the enactment of "per- 
sonal liberty" laws, which gave 
fugitive slaves the right to jury 
trials. 

The fugitive slave law was con- 
sidered a vital part of the Com- 
promise of 1850 and public men 
of both the North and the South 
had asserted that upon its faith- 
ful execution depended the life 
of the Union. In a speech at 
Capon Springs, Virginia, June 28, 
1851, Daniel Webster said: "I 
have not hesitated to say, and I 
repeat, that if the Northern States 
refuse, wilfully and deliberately, to carry into effect that 
part of the Constitution which respects the restoration of 
fugitive slaves, and Congress provide no remedy, the South 
would no longer be bound to observe the compact." Every 
time a runaway slave was arrested and rescued by a mob 
hundreds of converts were made to the antislavery cause. 
Men were beginning to fear that after all the Compromise 
was not a finality, when the whole question was suddenly 
reopened in Congress by Stephen A. Douglas in a bill which 
he proposed for the organization of the territory of Nebraska. 
The vast region extending from Missouri and Iowa to 
the Rockies, which went under the name of Nebraska, had 
never been organized and was still occupied by Indians. 




Stephen A. Douglas. 



The Irrepressible Conflict 327 

It was now proposed to remove the Indian tribes from a 
portion of this territory and open it up to settlers. The whole 
of Nebraska was north of the Missouri Compro- ^j^^ Kansas- 
mise line and according to that agreement Nebraska 

T):ii jQcA 

slavery was forever excluded, but Douglas now ' 
declared that a new principle had been adopted in the Com- 
promise of 1850, that is, the principle of popular sovereignty. 
He therefore questioned the validity of the Missouri Com- 
promise and provided in a bill which he introduced January 
4, 1854, that the territory of Nebraska, or any portion of 
the same, when admitted as a State or States, "shall be re- 
ceived into the Union with or without slavery, as their con- 
stitutions may prescribe at the time of their admission." 
On January 16 Dixon, a Whig senator from Kentucky who 
was filling Clay's unexpired term, offered an amendment 
providing in express terms for the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise. Douglas at first objected to the amendment, 
but after conferring with Dixon he finally decided to embody 
it in his bill. 

So far Douglas had not consulted any of the Southern 
leaders, but on Sunday, January 22, he called on Jefferson 
Davis and got him to accompany him to the White House. 
The matter was discussed at length with President Pierce 
and he finally gave his approval to the bill. On the following 
day Douglas offered as a substitute for his first bill one which 
expressly repealed the Missouri Compromise and provided 
for the organization of two territories instead of one, Kansas 
and Nebraska. The evident purpose was to make one 
State slave and the other free. 

In support of his measure Douglas said: "The legal 
effect of this bill is neither to legislate slavery into these 
territories nor out of them, but to leave the people The debate 
to do as they please. If they wish slavery, they °° *^^ ^^ 
have a right to it. If they do not want it, they will not have 
it, and you should not force it upon them." While Sumner, 



328 Sectional Diversfence 



&^ 



Wade, and Seward made able speeches against the bill, 
Chase's speech established him at once as the leader of the 
antislavery forces. The bill passed the Senate March 4 by a 
vote of 37 to 14 and the House May 22 by a vote of 113 to 100. 

The vote in the House showed the extent to which the 
measure threatened the disruption of both political parties. 
The Southern Democrats were solidly for the bill and the 
Northern Whigs solidly against it, but the Northern Demo- 
crats were divided, 44 for and 42 against, and the Southern 
Whigs were also divided, 12 for and 7 against. Many writ- 
ers have expressed the opinion that but for the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise the Civil War would not have taken 
place. While this is probably an extreme view, it is undoubt- 
edly true that the Kansas-Nebraska Act introduced a new phase 
of the slavery conflict which led straight to the Civil War. 

Douglas, a Northern Democrat, was responsible for the 
measure. It was his personal influence that carried it through 
Douglas's Congress. What was his motive and what end 
motives (\[(\ ^g have in view? The most usual answer to 
this question has been that it was a direct bid to the Southern 
Democrats for the presidential nomination, which Douglas 
undoubtedly coveted. Recent writers have, however, ad- 
vanced another explanation. The question of a transcon- 
tinental railroad was being much discussed at this time and 
there was great rivalry over the choice of a route. The 
Gadsden Purchase had opened the way for a road to Cali- 
fornia along the route later followed by the Southern Pacific, 
and Jefferson Davis as secretary of war sent a corps of 
engineers into the field and had this route surveyed. This 
route would of course be a great boon to Memphis and New 
Orleans. St. Louis and Chicago, on the other hand, wanted 
the road built west through the Nebraska territory, and 
the best way to secure the adoption of that route seemed 
to be to remove the Indians from that territory and open 
it up as speedily as possible to settlers. The Southern 



The Irrepressible Conflict 329 

leaders wished to delay as long as possible the admission of 
any more States north of the Missouri Compromise line. 
If, however, the way were opened for the admission of one 
slave State and one free State, not only would the Southern 
opposition be removed, but the rivalry between the sections 
would lead to a more rapid settlement of the region, which 
was the thing most desired. 

For several years it had been difficult to hold the old party 
alignments. In 1852 many of the Southern Whigs, notably 
those of Georgia led by Toombs and Stephens, ^ggha in 
repudiated General Scott, the Whig candidate, of political 
and henceforth allied themselves with the Demo- p^*'^^ 
cratic part}^ In the North many of the antislaver}- Demo- 
crats had joined the Free-Soilers. 

Between 1852 and 1854 a new political organization came 
into being under the name of the American or "Know- 
Nothing" part3^ This party was based primarily on op- 
position to foreigners, who were now coming to our shores 
in increasingly large numljers, and the object of the new party 
was to lengthen the period necessary for naturalization and 
to exclude foreigners and Roman Catholics from office. 
The organization was a secret one with lodges, countersigns, 
and symbols, and for a time it made rapid progress and 
gained control of several States. A great many Southern 
Whigs went into this movement rather than into the Demo- 
cratic party. The American party tried to ignore the slavery 
question, but divided like other parties on the Kansas- 
Nebraska Bill and soon went to pieces. 

By far the most important of the immediate effects of 
Douglas's measure was the formation of the Republican 
party. The fight against the bill in Congress had 
brought together antislavery Whigs, antislavery tionofthe 
Democrats, antislavery "Know-Nothings," Free- Republican 
Soilers and Abolitionists. On July 6, 1854, a 
convention of anti-Nebraska men was held at Jackson, 



330 Sectional Divergence 

Michigan, a full State ticket was nominated, and the name 
Republican was adopted by the new party. On July 13, 
the anniversary of the Ordinance of 1787, anti-Nebraska 
State conventions were held in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, 
and Vermont. 

In the Congressional elections at the North the new Doug- 
las policy was the paramount issue and it was overwhelmingly 
repudiated. The House which passed the Kansas-Nebraska 
Bill had a majority of 84 Democrats ; in the House elected 
after its passage the Democrats were in a minority of 75. Of 
the 42 Northern Democrats who had voted for the bill only 7 
were reelected. Douglas tried to show that the result was 
due to the gains of the "Know Nothings," but the new 
Congress was organized by the Republicans, who elected 
Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts, as speaker. 

Meanwhile the principle of popular sovereignty was 
producing unexpected results in Kansas. It had been 
The struggle generally expected that Kansas would become a 
for Kansas slave State, and Missouri farmers were soon 
moving across the border, a few of them carrying their slaves 
with them. A movement was started in Massachusetts, 
however, to prevent the Southern settlers from controlling 
Kansas. This was the Emigrant Aid Society, formed for 
the purpose of sending New England settlers into the ter- 
ritory. The antislavery settlers soon organized an "Un- 
derground Railroad" and slaves began escaping from Missouri 
through the free settlements in Kansas. The Missouri- 
ans were greatly enraged and as a measure of self-defense 
determined to make Kansas a slave State. When the elec- 
tion for members of the territorial legislature was held March 
30, 1855, large numbers of Missourians rode over the border, 
voted, and returned home. 

The pro-slavery advocates carried the election and the 
legislature adopted a slave code modeled after that of 
Missouri. The Free-Soilers, however, refused to recognize 



The Irrepressible Conflict 331 

the election as valid, and without any authorization from the 
territorial authorities or from Congress, they held a con- 
stitutional convention at Topeka October 23, 1855, framed 
a constitution prohibiting slavery, and organized a govern- 
ment which applied to Congress for admission as a State, 
There were thus two governments in the territory and con- 
ditions were ripe for the border warfare which soon broke 
out. Meanwhile the Emigrant Aid Society was supply- 
ing its settlers with rifles sent out in boxes marked "books." 
"Beecher's Bibles" was the name popularly given them. 

President Pierce upheld the authority of the territorial 
legislature and refused to recognize the legaUty of the Topeka 
movement. Douglas took the same view of the Brooks's 
case and there took place in the Senate the assault on 
angriest debate that had ever been known in "™°®'' 
that body. Sumner rephed to Douglas in a speech to which 
he gave the title of "The Crime against Kansas." It was 
prepared with unusual care and sent to the printer before 
deUvery. The special objects of his attack were Douglas 
and Senator Butler of South Carolina. The speech abounded 
in personal insults and veiled insinuations which the carefully 
chosen language rendered all the more exasperating. Sumner 
himself boasted, with characteristic egotism, that it was the 
"most thorough phihppic ever uttered in a legislative body." 

Douglas was present and defended himself with his usual 
vigor, meeting the personal attacks with counter-attacks. 
But Senator Butler was not present to defend himself, being 
detained at his home in South Carolina by an illness from 
which he never recovered. His nephew, Preston Brooks, 
who was a representative from South Carolina, determined 
to avenge the insult, and entering the Senate chamber after 
adjournment two days later, he attacked Sumner, who was 
seated at his desk writing, and gave him a severe beating with 
a cane. A resolution to expel Brooks was introduced in the 
House, but it failed to receive the necessary two-thirds 



332 Sectional Divergence 

vote. He promptly resigned his seat, however, only to be 
returned by the almost unanimous vote of his constituents. 
The incident aroused sectional hatred to an extent never 
before known in the history of the country. 

The struggle in Kansas had meanwhile developed into a 
state of border warfare. In May, 1856, the United States 
" Bleeding Marshal summoned a posse to assist him in 
Kansas " making certain arrests in Lawrence, the principal 
Free-Soil settlement, where his deputy had been resisted. 
Seven hundred and fifty men accompanied him to Lawrence 
and destroyed the newspaper office, a stone hotel built to 
serve as a fort, and the house of the man who had been 
elected governor under the Topeka constitution. 

Three days later John Brown perpetrated the Pottawat- 
omie murders. Accompanied by four sons, a son-in-law, 
and two other men, he went at night to the homes of some of 
the pro-slavery settlers, and, calUng the men outside, led 
them a short distance from their houses and murdered them 
(five in all) with short cutlasses. In a short time a state of 
civil war prevailed in Kansas. 

Such was the state of the country at the opening of the 
presidential campaign in 1856.' The Democratic party held 
The election its convention in Cincinnati in June and 
of 1856 nominated James Buchanan as its candidate. 

Pierce and Douglas were his principal rivals for the nomi- 
nation. The platform reaffirmed the principle of "non-in- 
terference by Congress with slavery in State and territory, 
or in the District of Columbia." Two weeks later the new 
Republican party held its convention in Philadelphia and 
nominated Colonel John C. Fremont, of CaHfornia, on a 
platform which opposed the extension of slavery and de- 
clared it to be the duty of Congress to exclude slavery from 
the territories of the United States. 

The Know-Nothing party named Ex-President Fillmore 
as their candidate and this nomination was endorsed by 



The Irrepressible Conflict 333 

what remained of the Whig organization. Buchanan re- 
ceived 174 electoral votes, Fremont 114, and Fillmore only 
the 8 votes of Maryland. Buchanan carried all the slave 
States except Maryland, and in addition Pennsylvania, New 
Jersey, Indiana, Ilhnois, and California. Fremont carried 11 
States, among them Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio. 
The size of his popular vote was a great surprise. Buchanan 
received 1,838,169; Fremont 1,341,264; and Fillmore 
874,534. Although Fremont was by no means a strong can- 
didate, the new party in its first fight drove the Whig party 
from the field and took its place as one of the two great 
national parties. 

The question as to the right of Congress to exclude slavery 
from the territories finally came before the Supreme Court 
of the United States in the famous Dred Scott -j-j^^ j.^ , 
case. Dred Scott was a negro slave owned by an Scott de- 
army surgeon, who in 1834 took him to an army <^'^'°"' ^^57 
post in IlUnois and later to another post west of the Mississippi 
in territory from which slavery was excluded by the terms 
of the Missouri Compromise. The negro made no effort 
to secure his freedom while residing in free territory, but 
some years after his master had taken him back to Mis- 
souri he sued for his freedom, first in the courts of Missouri 
and later in the United States courts, on the ground of his 
previous residence in free territory. 

The case was first argued in the Supreme Court in Feb- 
ruary, 1856, and the members of the Court had decided in 
conference to dismiss the case on the ground that Dred 
Scott was not a citizen and had no right to bring suit in the 
United States courts, but Justice McLean, a candidate for 
the Republican nomination for the presidency, determined 
to make political capital out of the case by writing a dis- 
senting opinion reviewing the history of African slavery in 
America from the Free-Soil point of view. The Southern 
members of the Court objected to this, and it was finally 



334 Sectional Divergence 

decided to defer the decision until after the presidential elec- 
tion and to hear the case reargued at the December term. 
The case was reheard in December, 1856, but the decision 
was not delivered until two days after the inauguration of 
Buchanan the following March. Meanwhile much pres- 
sure was indirectly brought to bear on the Court to enter 
into the merits of the case instead of dismissing it on a tech- 
nicality. It was thought that the question of slavery in 
the territories might thus be settled once for all by the 
highest tribunal in the land. 

In the opinion dehvered by Chief Justice Taney it was 
held that Dred Scott was not a citizen of the United States 
within the meaning of the Constitution and therefore could 
not sue in the Federal courts. Negroes were not included 
in the term "citizens" by the framers of the Constitution. 
But the opinion did not rest here. In the course of his argu- 
ment the chief justice canvassed the question as to whether 
the Missouri Compromise, under which Dred Scott claimed 
the right to sue, was a valid enactment. He came to the 
conclusion that the act was not constitutional, that a slave 
was property and that Congress had no right to exclude this 
particular kind of property any more than any other kind 
of property from the common territory of the United States. 
This decision met with a storm of indignation at the North 
and it was many years before the Supreme Court recovered 
from the odium that was heaped upon it. During the Civil 
War Lincoln ignored the Court with impunity and during 
the years following the war Congress threatened it into 
silence on the vital issues of Reconstruction. 

The Dred Scott decision settled nothing, much less the 
Kansas question. Robert J. Walker, the former secretary 
The Kansas ^^ ^^^ treasury, was appointed by Buchanan as 
question governor of Kansas, and he ordered an election 
again ^£ delegates to a constitutional convention to be 

held in June, 1857. The antislavery people, who had 



The Irrepressible Conflict 335 

already drafted without authorization the Topeka constitu- 
tion, decUned to participate in the election. The convention 
met at Lecompton, and drafted a constitution recognizing 
slavery. The slavery question was to be submitted to the 
people ; that is, they were to vote for the constitution Avith 
slavery, or for the constitution without slavery. There was 
no chance to vote against the constitution as a whole, and 
it contained a clause protecting property in slaves already 
in the territory. There were only about 200 of these. The 
constitution with slavery was ratified by the people at the 
polls by a majority of nearly 6000, but again the antislavery 
people refrained from voting. They, however, now con- 
trolled the legislature, which ordered the constitution as a 
whole to be resubmitted to the people. This time the pro- 
slavery people remained at home and the Lecompton con- 
stitution was rejected by 10,000 votes. It thus appeared that 
the antislavery people were in the majority, but the pro-slavery 
inhabitants had the advantage of legality on their side. 

February 2, 1858, President Buchanan submitted a copy 
of the Lecompton constitution to Congress and recommended 
the admission of Kansas. Douglas had from the first ad- 
vised the president against sanctioning the Lecompton con- 
stitution on the ground that it did not represent the wishes of 
a majority of the people of Kansas, and Governor Walker took 
the same view. The}^ objected to the form in which it had 
first been submitted. When the bill to admit Kansas 
under the Lecompton constitution came up in the Senate, 
Douglas denounced the president's course in strong terms. 
The breach between him and the administration was complete 
and henceforth he was denounced by the extreme Southern 
wing of the Democratic party as a renegade and a traitor, 
while he regained his hold on the North. His position was 
apparently bold and sincere. He claimed that he was up- 
holding his favorite doctrine of popular sovereignty, no 
matter which way it cut. 



336 Sectional Divergence 

The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 33 to 25, Douglas 
voting against it with Hale, Seward, Sumner, Wade, and 
other antislavery leaders. The bill passed the House with 
an amendment requiring the resubmission of the Lecompton 
constitution to the people of Kansas, but the Senate refused 
to concur. The EngUsh bill, a compromise measure, was 
then passed by both Houses. It offered Kansas a large grant 
of government lands on condition that the people should 
ratify the Lecompton constitution. If they rejected it, 
then the territory was not to be admitted until it had a large 
enough population to entitle it to a representative in Con- 
gress. On August 2, 1858, the proposition was rejected by 
11,300 out of a total vote of 13,088. Kansas was not ad- 
mitted until 1861, when it came in as a free State. 

During the summer of 1858 the people of lUinois had to 
decide whether they would elect a Democratic legislature 
The Lincoln- which would Send Douglas back to the Senate 
Douglas De- or a RepubUcan legislature which would choose 
ates, I 58 Abraham Lincoln, who had come forward as a 
candidate. Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of joint 
debates. The seven debates which followed in different 
parts of the State attracted the attention of the entire 
country. The discussion centered on the respective merits 
of Douglas's doctrine of popular sovereignty in the terri- 
tories and the RepubHcan doctrine of congressional control. 
On the outcome of the contest depended in large measure 
not only Douglas's seat in the Senate, but his chances for 
the Democratic presidential nomination in 1860. 

Lincoln tried to force Douglas either to repudiate his 
doctrine of popular sovereignty or to deny the full applica- 
tion of the Dred Scott decision, for the two were at variance. 
According to Douglas's doctrine a territory had the right 
either to adopt or to exclude slavery. According to the 
decision of the Supreme Court Congress had no power to 
exclude slavery from a territory. In the first debate at 



The Irrepressible Conflict 



337 



Freeport Lincoln asked, how could a territory forbid slavery 
when Congress could not? Did a territory have more 
power than the Congress which created it? Douglas an- 
swered that legislation hostile to slavery by the people of 
a territory would make the territory free soil in spite of the 
Dred Scott decision. This view was in direct opposition 
to the Southern position 
that it was the duty of Con- 
gress to protect slave prop- 
erty in the territories. 

Douglas won the sena- 
torial fight by a major- 
ity of eight votes in the 
legislature, but Lincoln 
had forced him into a 
position which cost him 
the support of the South- 
ern Democrats two years 
later. The debate brought 
Lincoln, who was a com- 
paratively unknown man, 
into national prominence 
and led to his nomination 
for the presidency in 1860. 

In October, 1859, the country was thrown into a state 
of feverish excitement by the announcement that John 
Brown, who had achieved evil notoriety in ^j^^ j^j^^^ 
Kansas, had with the aid of eighteen conspirators Brown raid, 
seized the United States Arsenal at Harper's ^ ^^ 
Ferry, Virginia, with the intention of arming the negro 
slaves and starting a servile insurrection. His intention 
was to carry the arms from the arsenal to the neighboring 
mountains and establish "camps of freedom" to which the 
slaves could resort. 

United States troops and Virginia militia were at once 




John Browx. 



338 Sectional Divergence 



!r>^ 



rushed to the scene and after a stout resistance, in which 
ten of his followers were killed, Brown was captured. Dur- 
ing the trial that followed he displayed extraordinary forti- 
tude and would make no defense except that he had been 
commissioned by God to free the slaves of the South. His 
serene manner and strange words impressed those who heard 
him during the trial and won him thousands of friends at 
the North. He was condemned and hanged by authority 
of the State of Virginia. It was found in the investigation 
that funds and firearms had been furnished him by prominent 
men at the North, among them Gerrit Smith, Theodore Par- 
ker, T. W. Higginson, G. L. Stearns, F. B. Sanborn, and 
Dr. S. G. Howe. When these names became known, Gerrit 
Smith went mad, Howe, Stearns, and Sanborn fled to Canada ; 
Theodore Parker had already gone to Europe; Higginson 
remained in Boston and was not disturbed. Some of these 
men knew Brown's plans in detail ; others claimed that 
they thought the arms were intended for Kansas. Many 
men of note at the North indorsed Brown's deed, and he 
soon became a popular hero. The affair had a most unfor- 
tunate effect on public opinion at the South. It strength- 
ened the hands of the radicals and solidified the forces that 
were making for secession. 

TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. The Cuban Question: T. C. Smith, Parties and Slavery, 
pp. 85-88; Rhodes, History of the United States, Vol. II, Chap. 
VI; McMaster, Vol. VIII, pp. 133-143, 161-164, 181-186, 332- 
361. 

2. The Fugitive Slave Law in Practice : Smith, pp. 22-27 ; 
Rhodes, Vol. I, pp. 207-226, 499-506; Schouler, Vol. V, pp. 204- 
214, 293-296; McMaster, Vol. VIII, pp. 46-54. 

3. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill: Smith, Chap. VII; Rhodes, 
Vol. I, pp. 424-498 ; Jefferson Davis, Rise and Fall of the Confed- 
erate Government, Vol. I, pp. 26-34 ; Schouler, Vol. V, pp. 279-293 ; 
McMaster, Vol. VIII, pp. 192-231 ; Allen Johnson, Stephen A. 



The Irrepressible Conflict 339 

Douglas, Chap. XI ; P. O. Ray, Repeal of Missouri Compromise, 
Chap. IV ; F. H. Hodder, " Genesis of Kansas-Nebraska Act " 
in Wisconsin Historical Society Proceedings, 1912, pp. 69-86. 

4. The Border War in Kansas : Smith, Chap. IX ; Rhodes, 
Vol. II, Chap. VII; McMaster, Vol. VIII, pp. 215-264; Schouler, 
Vol. V, pp. 320-363, 382-400. 

5. The Election of 1856: Smith, Chap. XII; Stanwood, Chap. 
XX; Rhodes, Vol. II, Chap. VIII; McMaster, Vol. VIII, pp. 
264-276. 

6. The Dred Scott Case: Smith, Chap. XIV; Rhodes, Vol. 
II, Chap. IX ; McMaster, Vol. VIII, pp. 278-282 ; Schouler, Vol. 
V, pp. 376-381. 

7. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates : Smith, Chap. XVI ; Rhodes, 
Vol. II, pp. 302-343 ; McMaster, Vol. VIII, pp. 317-337 ; Johnson, 
Stephen A. Douglas, Chap. XVI. 

8. John Brown: F. E. Chadwick, Causes of the Civil War, Chap. 
V; Jefferson Davis, Vol. I, pp. 35-47; Rhodes, Vol. II, pp. 384- 
416 ; Oswald Garrison Villard, John Brown. 



CHAPTER XX 

SECESSION 

When the campaign of 1860 opened Douglas was the 
leading candidate for the Democratic nomination, but 
the Lincoln-Douglas debates had made hun an 
in the unacceptable candidate to the Southern wing of 

Democratic the party. The Democratic National Con- 
^^ ^' ^ vention met in Charleston, South Carolina, April 

23, 1860. Douglas had a majority of the delegates, but it 
was soon evident that he could not secure the necessary two 
thirds. As the California and Oregon delegations acted with 
the South, the anti-Douglas men had 17 out of 33 States, 
and hence, a majority of the committee on resolutions. They 
reported a platform embodying a series of resolutions which 
Jefferson Davis had introduced in the Senate in January, 
1860. These resolutions repudiated the theory of popular 
sovereignty, upheld the decision of the Supreme Court in 
the Dred Scott case, called on Congress to protect slavery 
in every territory of the United States, and demanded the 
repeal of the personal liberty laws in the Northern States. 

The minority report presented by the Douglas men re- 
affirmed the platform adopted by the party four years before 
at Cincinnati, which upheld the doctrine of popular sov- 
ereignty. After a long wrangle, the Douglas platform was 
adopted by a vote of 165 to 138. Yancey, the chairman of 
the Alabama delegation; then arose and announced the 
withdrawal of Alabama from the convention. Mississippi, 
Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, and Arkansas 
followed. 

340 



Secession 341 

On the following day the convention decided that two 
thirds of the whole electoral vote was necessary to nominate 
a ticket, and proceeded with the balloting. On 
the first ballot Douglas received 145 votes, Nomination 

of Douglas 

Hunter 42, Guthrie 35, and 30 votes were scat- by the 
tered among six other candidates. In the next Northern 

• rT 1 11 r-w Wing, and of 

two days the convention cast 57 ballots. On Brecidn- 
several ballots Douglas received 162 votes, ridge by the 

• 1 1-1 * Southern 

which was a majority but not two thirds. As wing 
there seemed no chance of reaching a nomination, 
the convention then adjourned to meet in Baltimore on 
July 18. The delegates who had seceded from the conven- 
tion met in another hall in Charleston and formed a sepa- 
rate body, electing James A. Bayard of Delaware as chair- 
man, and after adopting the platform which the regular con- 
vention had rejected, they adjourned to meet in Richmond. 
When the regular convention reassembled in Baltimore 
an effort was made to bring the two wings of the party to- 
gether, but as soon as the convention was organized Virginia 
led another secession, followed by most of the delegates from 
Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Maryland. 
This time the seceders carried with them the chairman of 
the convention, Caleb Cushing of Massachusetts. The 
regulars then proceeded to balloting and on the second ballot 
nominated Stephen A. Douglas as their candidate for the 
presidency. They then reaffirmed the platform adopted 
at Charleston and adjourned. 

The Democrats who bolted at Baltimore proceeded at 
once to nominate John C. Breckinridge as their candidate, 
and this nomination was confirmed by the first group of 
bolters who had assembled in Richmond. Breckinridge's 
wing adopted the platform which had been rejected by the 
Charleston convention. 

Meanwhile, the Republican Convention had assembled 
in Chicago on May 16. Seward had for some time been 



342 Sectional Divergence 

considered the leading candidate for the Republican nomi- 
nation, but some of the party leaders distrusted him and 
others for personal reasons were strongly an- 

Nomination . . \,^, , . 7^ , 

of Lincoln tagomstic. When the convention met Seward 

by the ^nd his friends were quite confident of his nomi- 

Republicans , . i , t • i i i i ^ 

nation, but Lincoln, whose name had not been 

seriously considered in the East, had the support of Indiana, 
Illinois and Iowa, and a few individual delegates, and he was 
the favorite candidate of the crowds that paraded the streets 
and filled the convention hall. Seward led on the first 
two ballots, but Lincoln was a close second, and his unex- 
pected strength made such an impression on the convention 
that Seward's enemies soon combined on Lincoln and on 
the third ballot he was nominated. 

The Republican platform repudiated the principle enun- 
ciated by the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision. It 
declared "that the new dogma, that the Constitution, of its 
own force, carries slavery into any or all of the territories of 
the United States, is a dangerous political heresy at variance 
with the explicit provisions of that instrument itself, with 
contemporaneous exposition, and with legislative and 
judicial precedent; is revolutionary in its tendency and 
subversive of the peace and harmony of the country. That 
the normal condition of all the territory of the United States 
is that of freedom." 

Another ticket was put before the voters by the Constitu- 
tional Union party, which was made up of what remained 
of the Whig and "Know-nothing" organizations. 
of°^'uby°" This party held its first and only convention in 
the Consti- Baltimore and nominated John Bell of Tennessee 
Ui^onVarty ^'^^ president, and Edward Everett of Massa- 
chusetts for vice-president. It adopted a short 
platform pledging itself "to recognize no political principles 
other than the Constitution of the country, the Union of 
the States, and the enforcement of the laws." 



Secession 



343 



Unexpected 
results of 
the split in 
the Demo- 
cratic Party 



It 



The Southern Democrats seemed to be forcing a "rule or 
rum" pohcy, and most historians have taken the view that 
the radical leaders were already bent on seces- 
sion. This is the usual explanation that has 
been given of the folly of putting two Demo- 
cratic tickets in the field. The truth is, how- 
ever, that nobody at that time expected that 
IJncoln could win with three candidates opposing him 
was confidently expected 
by the Southern delegates 
that no candidate would 
receive a majority of the 
electoral votes, and that 
the choice of a president 
would thus devolve upon 
the House of Representa- 
tives, in which event they 
had reason to hope that 
Breckinridge would be 
chosen president. As the 
campaign developed, 
however, and it became 
evident that Lincoln 
would carry more States 
than had been antici- 
pated, Jefferson Davis, 
acting in behalf of the 
Southern wing of the 

Democratic party, called on Douglas and proposed that 
both he and Breckinridge should withdraw so as to allow 
the two Democratic factions to unite on a third candidate. 
Douglas declined to entertain the proposition, saying that 
as he had received a majority of the votes in the Charleston 
convention, he did not think it was incumbent upon him to 
withdraw from the race. 




ABRAiL\M Lincoln'. 



344 Sectional Divergence 

Lincoln carried all of the Northern States, except New 
Jersey, where he received four of the seven electoral votes. 
The election His total electoral vote was 180, Breckinridge's 
of Lincoln ^2, Bell's 39, and Douglas's 12. The popular 
vote was as follows: Lincoln 1,866,000, Douglas 1,375,000, 
Breckinridge 847,000, Bell 587,000. 

With the election of Lincoln the more radical Southern 
leaders at once began to make plans for withdrawing from 

the Union and forming a Southern Confederacy, 
result was In his debates with Douglas in 1858, Lincoln had 
regarded at declared : "A house divided agahist itself cannot 

stand. I believe this Government cannot endure 
permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the 
Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall, 
but I do expect it will cease to be divided." Seward, who 
had been regarded as the foremost leader of the Republican 
party, and who was later selected by Lincoln for the position 
of secretary of state, had referred to the contest between 
the North and the South as an "irrepressible conflict," which 
must make the nation all slave or all free. Notwithstand- 
ing the public declaration of the party in its platform that it 
would not interfere with the domestic institutions of any 
State, many Southerners believed that the Republican party 
would in the near future inevitably undertake a general 
policy of emancipation. Furthermore, Lincoln had not 
received a single electoral vote south of Mason and Dixon's 
line, and he was the first president who had ever been elected 
to that office by a strictly sectional vote. 

The South Carolina legislature was in session when the 

result of the election became known, and it im- 
80"?'°'^°^ mediately called a State convention, which was 
Carolina and to decide whether the State should remain in the 
stat^^" Union or not. The delegates to this convention 

were regularly elected on the issue of secession, 
and when it convened December 20, 1860, it unanimously 



Secession 345 

adopted an ordinance of secession, declaring that the union 
subsisting between South Carohna and the other States under 
the name of the United States of America was dissolved. 

During the next six weeks conventions were held in all 
of the Gidf States, and ordinances of secession were adopted, 
in most cases by overwhelming majorities. Mississippi 
seceded January 9, 1861, Florida January 10, Alabama 
January 11, Georgia January 19, Louisiana Januarj^ 26, and 
Texas February 1. In each case the legislature sunmioned a 
convention in the usual constitutional manner. There was 
no conspiracy on the part of the political leaders, as was 
charged at the time. The people knew what was proposed, 
and they voted overwhelmingly for immediate secession. 
A few prominent leaders stood out in strong opposition to 
the movement. The most conspicuous of these were Alex- 
ander H. Stephens of Georgia, Sam Houston of Texas, and 
James L. Petigru of South Carolina. 

The doctrine of secession was based on the compact theory 
of government. As we have already seen, this theory was 
almost universally held at the time that the secession 
Constitution of the United States was adopted, historically 
The talk of secession, which had been indulged '^^^^^ 
in with increasing frequency during the period of 1850-1860, 
was by no means new. It had been resorted to as a threat 
by almost every part of the Union in turn, but prior to the 
action of South Carolina in 1860, no attempt had been made 
to carry the threat into effect. Threats of secession had 
first been made in New England in opposition to the em- 
bargo, to the admission of Louisiana as a State, and to the 
War of 1812. When the Louisiana Bill was under discus- 
sion, Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts declared in the Senate : 
"If this bill passes, it is my deliberate opinion that it is 
virtually a dissolution of the Union ; that it will free the 
States from their moral obligation ; and, as it will be the right 
of all, so it will be the duty of some, definitely to prepare for 



346 Sectional Divergence 

a separation, . . . amicably if they can, violently if they 
must." 

During the second war with England there appeared an 
article in the Connecticut Spectator of August 3, 1814, which 
was copied with editorial approval in the Salem Gazette, in 
which we find this statement: "State sovereignty excludes 
the possibility of State rebellion ; a sovereign State may 
infract its treaties, but can never rebel, nor can any citizen 
of such State when acting under and in pursuance of its 
authority, be guilty of treason against the United States." 
In 1843 John Quincy Adams declared in an address to the 
people of the free States that the annexation of Texas " would 
be a violation of our national compact" of such a character 
"as not only inevitably to result in a dissolution of the 
Union, but fully to justify it ; and we not only assert that 
the people of the free States ought not to submit to it, but 
we say, with confidence, they would not submit to it." 

Senator Henry Cabot Lodge in his Life of Daniel Webster 
makes the following statement: "When the Constitution 
„. , was adopted by the votes of States at Phila- 
Henry Cabot delphia, and accepted by the votes of States in 
Charles"** popular conventions, it is safe to say that there 
Francis was not a man in the country from Washington 

^^^™^ and Hamilton on the one side, io George Clinton 

and George Mason on the other, who regarded the new 
system as anything but an experiment entered upon by the 
States and from which each and every State had the right 
peaceably to withdraw, a right which was very likely to be 
exercised." Charles Francis Adams in an address on "The 
Constitutional Ethics of Secession" asks the question, to 
whom was allegiance due in case of direct conflict between 
a State and the Federal government? And he says: "I 
do not think the answer admits of doubt. If put in 1788, 
or indeed at any time anterior to 1825, the immediate reply 
of nine men out of ten in the Northern States, and of ninety- 



Secession 



347 



nine out of a hundred in the Southern States, would have 
been that, as between the Union and the State, ultimate 
allegiance was due to the State." 

To the majority of people in the northern belt of Southern 
States, the action of South Carolina appeared precipitate, 
and little apprehension was felt of an attack by attitude of 
the Federal government on the institution of the border 
slavery as it existed in any of the States. The *^*^^ 
border State men generally endeavored to bring about a 
compromise between the radicals of the North and of the 
South. On December 18, 1860, Senator Crittenden of 
Kentucky proposed a constitu- 
tional amendment, forbidding 
slavery north of 36°30' and recog- 
nizing it south of that line in all 
territories then held or thereafter 
to be acquired. This amendment 
was referred to a Senate com- 
mittee of thirteen. The Repul^li- 
can members of this committee 
conferred with Lincoln and he 
expressed himself strongly op- 
posed to any such compromise, 
on the ground that it would en- 
courage the South to undertake 
the acquisition of more territory 
south of that line. When the committee finally reported, 
the vote stood six for the amendment and seven against it. 

While Lincoln was inflexible on the territorial question, 
he was disposed to be as conciliatory as possible to the 
Southerners. On December 22, 1860, he wrote concUiatory 
to Alexander H. Stephens: "I fully appreciate attitude of 
the present peril the country is in, and the weight ^"*^°''^ 
of responsibility on me. Do the people of the South really 
entertain fears that a Republican administration would di- 





^^^^p 


"'^ 


Pf^ 








1 


^^^^^^^HN jR 



Alexander H. Stephens. 



348 Sectional Divergence 

rectly or indirectly interfere with their slaves, or with them 
about their slaves? If they do I wish to assure you . . . 
that there is no cause for such fears. The South would be 
in no more danger in this respect than it was in the days of 
Washington. I suppose, however, this does not meet the case. 
You think slavery is right and ought to be extended, while 
we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. That, I 
suppose, is the rub. It certainly is the only substantial dif- 
ference between us." This letter, which was made pub- 
lic, scarcely agrees with the " house-divided-against-itself " 
speech in the debate of 1858, and did little toward reassur- 
ing the South. 

The four months that elapsed between the election of 
Lincoln and his inauguration were a trying period in the 
Attitude of history of the country. ^ President Buchanan had 
Buchanan been intimately associated with the Southern 
leaders. He believed that the States had no right to secede, 
but he also believed that the Union had no right to coerce 
them. He refused, therefore, either to recognize a dissolu- 
tion of the Union and arrange terms of separation with the 
seceding States, or, on the other hand, to take any measure 
to coerce them or to protect the property of the United 
States within their limits. The election of Lincoln had 
precipitated the crisis and he proposed to let Lincoln solve 
the problem which it had created. 

The Virginia legislature invited all the States to meet 
in convention in Washington on February 4, 1861, for the 
The peace purpose of arranging terms of conciliation, 
convention Twenty-one States responded to the call, and 
Ex-President Tyler presided over the convention when it 
met. A constitutional amendment, resembling in the 
main the Crittenden compromise, was proposed, but nothing 
came of it. 

There w^pre only two forts within the limits of the Southern 
States that had so far seceded that were garrisoned at the 



Secession 349 

time by United States troops. One was Fort Moultrie at 
Charleston, and the other was Fort Pickens in Georgia. On 
December 26, Major Anderson, who was in com- xhe problem 
mand at Fort Moultrie, moved his garrison over presented by 
to Fort Sumter, which could be better defended. ° ^^ ®^ 
All eyes were now turned on Fort Sumter. South Carolina 
at once collected troops and stationed batteries so as to bear 
on the fort in case any attempt should be made to rein- 
force it. On January 9, 1861, the Star of the West, a merchant 
vessel, which had been dispatched from New York with 
men and provisions for Fort Sumter, approached the en- 
trance to the Charleston harbor and was fired on by the 
South Carolinians. The ship withdrew and returned to 
New York. 

When Lincoln was inaugurated he was informed through 
the War Department that Major Anderson was running short 
of provisions, and Lincoln was much perplexed as to what 
policy he should pursue. Each side wished if possible to 
avoid the odium of firing the first shot. Lincoln's cabinet 
was divided on the subject. Some of them advised holding 
and strengthening the fort, while others advised the with- 
drawal of the garrison in order to avoid war. Anderson him- 
self favored evacuating the fort, and General Scott held 
the same view. Meanwhile, there were in Washington three 
agents of the Confederate government, who were carrying 
on unofficial negotiations with Secretary Seward. Seward 
favored the withdrawal of the garrison from Fort Sumter, 
and he assured the commissioners that no effort would be 
made to send any reinforcements. 

Meanwhile, the Navy Department was making prepara- 
tions to send an expedition to the relief of the fort. Wlien 
rumors of this expedition reached the commis- The relief 
sioners they demanded an explanation of Seward, expedition 
He replied through a confidential agent: "Faith as to 
Sumter fully kept. Wait and see." On the following day, 



350 Sectional Divergence 

April 8, the relief expedition sailed from New York. On 
the same day Lincoln officially announced to Governor 
Pickens of South Carolina that he intended to supply the 
fort with provisions. Southern writers have generally 
charged Lincoln with bad faith, but the evidence does not 
justify this charge. Seward's negotiations with the Con- 
federate commissioners were in no way sanctioned bj'- Lin- 
coln. Seward himself was strongly opposed to sending the 
relief expedition, and up to the last moment he sincerely 
believed that his influence would be sufficient to prevent it. 

On April 11 General Beauregard formally demanded the 
surrender of Fort Sumter. Anderson refused, saying, how- 
Thefaiiof ever, that he would soon be starved out. On 
Fort Sumter April 12 at 4 : 30 A.M. the Confederate batteries 
opened fire on the fort, and on the 13th Anderson offered 
to surrender. The relief expedition had been waiting out- 
side the harbor since the 12th, but owing to the absence of 
one of the ships which had been detained by the unwar- 
ranted interference of Seward, no assistance was rendered. 
The firing on Sumter proved a serious mistake, as it enabled 
President Lincoln to charge the South with having begun 
the war. 

On April 15 Lincoln called upon the States for 75,000 
militia to assist in putting down the secession movement. 
This demand was indignantly refused by the 
Virginia, governors of the eight remaining slave States, 
North with the exception of Maryland and Delaware. 

Tennessee, A convention had been summoned in Virginia to 
^^^ consider the question of secession, and when it met 

early in February it was found that a large major- 
ity of the delegates were Union men. The convention con- 
tinued in session, however, and watched the course of events. 

The northern tier of Southern States had been opposed 
to secession and had regarded the action of the Gulf States 
as precipitate, but now they had thrust upon them the 



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UXITED STATES \ ^ 

in 1861 

r/ie fteary line shows the limit of 
territory held by Confederates, 



Secession 351 

alternative of supplying troops for the purpose of subjugat- 
ing their sister States or of seceding and joining with them 
in the Southern Confederacy. As their political affiliations, 
their commercial and industrial interests, and their views 
of constitutional interpretation, no less than the institu- 
tion of slavery, bound them to the States farther south, 
there was little doubt as to what the outcome would be. 
On April 17 the State Convention of Virginia passed the 
ordinance of secession by a vote of 88 to 55, and provided 
that it should be submitted to the people for ratification. 
Governor Letcher immediately seized the United States 
arsenal at Harper's Ferry and the Navy Yard at Norfolk, 
and made a provisional agreement with the Confederate 
government. North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas 
followed the example of Virginia. 

The first bloodshed of the Civil War occurred in the 
streets of Baltimore on the 19th of April, the anniversary 
of the Battle of Lexington. One of the first 
regiments to respond to Lincoln's call was the bloodshed. 
Sixth Massachusetts, which had to pass through April 19, 
Baltimore in order to reach the national capital. 
The great majority of Baltimoreans sympathized with the 
South or at any rate were strongly opposed to coercing the 
Southern States, and when the regiment undertook to pass 
through the city the streets were filled with excited throngs 
of people. The mayor of the city and the chief of police 
did everything in their power to preserve order, but the mob 
began throwing missiles at the soldiers, some of whom opened 
fire without the authorization of their officers. An irregular 
fight occurred in which several soldiers and a number of 
people, most of them innocent bystanders, were killed. 

The governor of Maryland at once had the bridges on 
the Harrisburg and Philadelphia Railroads burned, and 
Washington was cut off from both railway and telegraphic 
communication with the North. The Seventh New York 



35*2 Sectional Divergence 

regiment went by water from Philadelphia to Annapolis 
and reached Washington April 25, followed shortly by the 
Fifth Massachusetts. The crisis had now passed. Other 
regiments continued to pour into the capital. On May 3 
the president issued a call for 42,000 volunteers for three 
years. 

There was now a sharp contest for the control of Missouri 
and Kentucky and the western counties of Virginia. Union 
sympathizers, with the aid of the Federal gov- The contest 
ernment, prevented the secession of Missouri in the border 
and Kentucky, and the active interference of the *^^®^ 
Federal government in Maryland prevented the secessionists 
from organizing in that State. The trans-Alleghany coun- 
ties of Virginia had always been politically opposed to the 
counties in the eastern part of the State. Their trade re- 
lations were largely with the Ohio River Valley. General 
McClellan was promptly sent into this region with troops 
from Ohio. Confederate forces were defeated at Philippi 
and Rich Mountain, and General Garnett, the Confederate 
commander, was killed at Carrick's Ford in July, 1861. 

Western Virginia thus fell at a blow under the control of the 
Federal government, and a movement was soon started to 
organize a separate State. As the Federal Constitution 
provides that a State cannot be divided without its consent, 
there was some perplexity at first as to how a new State could 
be constitutionally erected. A convention of delegates 
from the "loyal counties" of Virginia met and organized 
what they called "the restored government of Virginia." 
This government, which embraced the counties west of the 
Alleghanies and a few counties bordering on the Potomac, 
went through the form of giving the consent of Virginia to 
the organization of W^est Virginia. 

The population of the United States, according to the 
census of 1860, was a little over 31,000,000; that of 
the States remaining in the Union was about 22.000,000. 



Secession 353 

while the Confederate States had a population of about 

9,000,000, of which over 3,500,000 were slaves. 

The North, however, was at this time by no means strength of 

enthusiastic about the war. In fact. President North and 

Lincoln's policy created strong opposition. The 

South, on the other hand, with the exception of eastern 

Tennessee, was almost a solid unit. 

A great many historians have been perplexed to account 
for the fact of Southern solidarity. Not more than one 
man in five owned slaves. Why, they ask, should southern 
the non-slaveholding population have engaged solidarity 
in a war which was fought to maintain the supremacy of a 
slaveholding aristocracy? In answer it may be said, in 
the first place, that neither side at the outset admitted that 
slavery was the issue at stake. At the North both presi- 
dent and Congress denied that there was anj^ intention of 
interfering ^\ith slavery in any State in which it existed. The 
preservation of the Union was the avowed object of the war 
and it was not until 1862 that it was turned into a crusade 
against slavery. The South, on the other hand, claimed 
to be fighting solely in defense of constitutional rights. In 
the second place, even had abolition been the avowed object 
of the North from the first, the non-slaveholding population 
of the South would have entered the struggle ^ith just as 
much enthusiasm, for their racial instinct was strongly 
developed and they abhorred the abolition theory of racial 
equaUty. The poor white of the South would have been 
the last man to desire to bring about the freedom of the 
negro and his poHtical or social equality with the white. 

At the time that the war broke out, the United 
States had a very small military establishment ^southlrn 
and it was thoroughly disorganized by the with- officers from 
drawal of officers who decided to stand by their ^t^Ji'''°'' 

•^ army 

States. Probably a third of the officers in the 

army were Southerners, and most of these resigned and 



854 



Sectional Divergence 



went South. Notable exceptions were General Scott and 
George H. Thomas, both Virginians, who decided to remain 
in the Union army. 

At the beginning of the war President Davis's miUtary 
experience both in the field and in the War Department, gave 
him a great advantage over President Lincoln. Davis was 
a graduate of West Point, had served with distinction in the 

Mexican War, and as 
secretary of war under 
Pierce had displayed 
marked ability in re- 
organizing and improv- 
ing the service. There 
was probably no man 
in the United States 
who was better posted 
on the condition of the 
army, or who was better 
acquainted with its per- 
sonnel. This probably 
explains the fact that 
Davis selected at the 
outset generals of 
marked ability who 
maintained their posi- 
tions throughout the 
war, while Lincoln, who 
had to depend upon the 
advice of others, and who was influenced by political con- 
siderations, selected men who proved in most cases incompe- 
tent, and did not succeed in placing thoroughly competent 
officers in command of his armies until years of experience 
had evolved them. 

Before the beginning of hostilities General Scott sum- 
moned to Washington Colonel Robert E. Lee, who had 




Jefferson Davis. 



Secession 355 

been stationed in Texas. The old general had a warm affec- 
tion for Lee, and declared that he had displayed more 
conspicuous ability in the Mexican War than any The decision 
other officer in the army. Lee was a Virginian of °^ ^®® 
Virginians. Connected by marriage with the family of Wash- 
ington, son of the famous "Light-Horse Harry" Lee of the 
Revolution, and holding through his wife a magnificent estate 
just across the Potomac from the national capital, it was 
indeed difficult for him to decide what course to pursue. In 
January, 1861 , he wrote to his son from Texas as follows : " Se- 
cession is nothing but revolution. . . . Still, a Union that 
can only be maintained by swords and bayonets, and in which 
strife and civil war are to tkke the place of brotherly love 
and kindness, has no charm for me. I shall mourn for my 
country and for the welfare and progress of mankind. If the 
Union is dissolved and the government disrupted, I shall 
return to my native State and share the miseries of my people, 
and save in defence will draw my sword on none." About 
the time that Virginia adopted the ordinance of secession, 
Lee was offered the command of the Union armies. To 
this offer, which was made by President Lincoln through 
Francis Preston Blair, he rephed : "If I owned the four 
miUions of slaves, I would cheerfully sacrifice them to the 
preservation of the Union, but to lift my hand against my 
own State and people is impossible." 



TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. The Presidential Campaign of i860: F. E. Chadwick, Causes 
of Civil War, Chaps. VII, VIII ; Stanwood, Chap. XXI ; Rhodes, 
Vol. II, Chap. XI ; Jefferson Davis, Rise and Fall of Confederate 
Government, Vol.1, pp. 47-57 ; Phillips, Robert Toombs, Chap. VIII ; 
W. E. Dodd, Jefferson Davis, Chap. XI. 

2. Secession of South Carolina and the Gulf States : Chadwick, 
Chap. IX; Rhodes, Vol. Ill, pp. 115-214; Phillips, Robert Toombs, 
Chap. IX ; Dodd, Jefferson Davis, Chap. XII, XIII. 



356 Sectional Divergence 

3. Attitude of President Buchanan : Chadwick, Chaps. X-XV ; 
Rhodes, Vol. Ill, pp. 217-248; McMaster, Vol. VIII, pp. 493-509; 
Schouler, Vol. V, pp. 491-512; [James Buchanan] Mr. Buchanans 
Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion. 

4. Lincoln and Fort Sumter: Chadwick, Chaps. XVII-XIX ; 
Rhodes, Vol. Ill, pp. 325-356; Stephens, War between the States, 
Vol. II, pp. 345-355; Bancroft, W. H. Seward, Vol. II, Chaps. 
XXVIII, XXIX. 

5. Secession of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkan- 
sas : Chadwick, Chap. XVI; Rhodes, Vol. Ill, pp. 378-393; 
J. L. M. Curry, Civil History of Confederate States, Chap. IV ; 
Munford, Virginia's Attitude toward Slavery and Secession, pp. 
248-300; G. Bradford, Lee the American, Chap. II. 

6. Constitutional and Ethical Aspects of Secession : W.B.Wood 
and J. E. Edmonds, History of the Civil War in the United States, 
Chap. I; Jefferson Davis, Vol. I, pp. 77-85; C. F. Adams, Studies 
Military and Diplomatic, pp. 203-231, 291-343; J. C. Reed, 
Brothers' War, Chaps. IV, XV; J. L. M. Curry, Chaps. I, IX; 
W. G. Brown, Lower South in American History, Chap. II ; Mun- 
ford, pp. 301-304. 



PART V 

THE CIVIL WAR 

CHAPTER XXr 
THE OPENING CAMPAIGNS, EAST AND WEST 

From the Potomac to northern Georgia and Alabama 
the territory of the Confederacy was divided into two dis- 
tinct theaters of military operations by the 
Appalachian chain of mountains, a hundred or theaters of 
more miles in width. South of the Potomac military 
this range was crossed by only one railroad, which 
ran through Lynchburg, Bristol, and east Tennessee to 
Chattanooga. From this point roads connected with At- 
lanta to the southeast, Memphis to the west, and Nashville 
to the northwest. Early in the war the Federal govern- 
ment undertook three forward movements, while the Con- 
federates acted on the defensive. The main campaign was 
directed against Richmond, and the Army of the Potomac 
which undertook this task was also charged with the duty of 
defending Washington. In the West an attempt was made 
by the combined operations of army and navy to occupy the 
line of the Mississippi River, and thus to cut off from the Con- 
federacy Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Another large 
army undertook to occupy Kentucky and Tennessee, and 
then to penetrate through the heart of the Confederacy to 
Atlanta. The two movements in the West were, of course, 
closely connected. 

357 



358 



The Civil War 



The Civil War began with a desperate struggle for Mis- 
souri, Kentucky, and West Virginia, but attention was 
Operations ^^^^ drawn to operations in northern Virginia. 



in northern 
Virginia 



President Davis entered Richmond, the new 
capital of the Confederacy, on May 29, 1861. 
At this time General Joseph E. Johnston was at Harper's 
Ferry with an army of 9000 men, and General Beauregard 
was at Manassas Junction with about 21,000. There was 
also a small force at Aquia Creek to defend the Richmond 

and Fredericksburg Railroad. 
General Winfield Scott, who was 
still in command of the United 
States army, was disinclined to 
adopt an offensive policy with raw 
troops enlisted for three months, 
but there was an insistent demand 
at the North for a forward move- 
ment, and "On to Richmond!" 
was the popular cry. Scott's first 
plan was to take Harper's Ferry 
while McDowell held Beauregard 
at Manassas. Accordingly Pat- 
terson advanced from Chambers- 
burg, Pennsylvania, with a large force against Harper's 
Ferry, and Johnston fell back to Winchester on June 15, 
Harper's Ferry being untenable on account of the over- 
towering Maryland heights. 

McDowell, who was in command of the Army of the 
Potomac, now planned an attack on Beauregard, provided 
Johnston could be held in the Valley. Patterson, 
who had over 20,000 men with him, was ordered 
to detain Johnston, or in case he should under- 
take to leave the Valley, to follow close on his 
heels. Meanwhile, Beauregard had taken up a strong po- 
sition behind Bull Run, with his left facing the Stone Bridge 




General Beauregard. 



McDowell 
advances 
against 
Beauregard 



The Opening Campaigns 



3o9 




The War in the East. 



360 The Civil War 

on the Warrenton turnpike. McDowell advanced against 
the Confederate army ^vith about 30,000 men. Patterson, 
however, failed to carry out his part of the program. John- 
ston gave him the slip and sent Jackson's brigade over the 
Blue Ridge at Ashby's Gap and on to Piedmont Station, 
where it took the train and reached Manassas at four p.m., 
July 19. The other brigades were delayed by a wreck, but 
by the morning of the 21st three of Johnston's four brigades 
were with Beauregard's army. 

In the battle which took place on the 21st McDowell 
threw his right across Bull Run, forced the Confederates 
First back from the Stone Bridge so that his center 

Manassas, could cross, and thus with two thirds of his army 
"° began to roll up the Confederate line from left 
to right. By noon this preliminary movement had been 
successfully completed. Then began the second stage of 
the battle, which was waged for the possession of the Henry 
House hill. Here General T. J. Jackson managed to hold 
his position in the face of greatly superior forces until Beau- 
regard and Johnston were able to bring up reenforcements. 
It was at this time that General Bee, endeavoring to rally 
the broken Hne of his Carolinians, exclaimed: "Look at 
Jackson! There he stands Uke a stone wall," thus giving 
him the name by which he was to be known to history. 
More than once the Federals gained the plateau, but Jack- 
son finally charged them with the bayonet and turned the 
tide. With the arrival of General Kirby Smith's brigade, 
which was the last of Johnston's brigades to leave the Valley, 
the Confederates swept the Federals from the field and the 
retreat soon degenerated into a panic. 

McDowell had ordered his army to fall back to Center- 
Rout of the ville, but it was utterly impossible to stop the 
Federal rout there, and the troops throwing away arms and 

"™^ ammunition, and abandoning their artillery and 

wagon trains, rushed on in wild confusion to seek refuge 



The Opening Campaigns 



361 



in the defenses of Washington. Bull Run was a terrible 
shock to the North. Congress realized now that the South 
could not be conquered by raw recruits in a summer's cam- 
paign. On the day following the battle an act was passed 
providing for the enhstment of 500,000 men for three years. 
In view of the state of demoralization that prevailed in the 
capital, the Confederate generals have been criticized for 

not attempting to take Wash- 
ington, but the Confederate army, 
made up mostly of new recruits 
who had never been in action 
before, was thoroughly exhausted 
from the long day's fight, and 
could not possibly have continued 
the pursuit without rest and re- 
cuperation. 

As a result of the defeat at 
Manassas, McDowell was reUeved 
of the command of the McCieiian 
Army of the Potomac i° command 
and George B. McClellan was 
called from West Virginia to 
succeed him. McClellan was at 
this time in his thirty-fifth year. 
He had graduated in the class 
of 1846 at West Point, had seen service in the Mexican 
War, and had been sent abroad to observe operations in 
the Crimean War. In 1857 he had resigned from the army 
to take up railroad work. When the war broke out he was 
assigned the task of diiving the Confederates out of the 
counties which afterwards formed the State of West Virginia. 
When McClellan assumed command of the Army of the 
Potomac he found it in a deplorable condition. He set to 
work at once to organize the new army authorized by Con- 
gress and to restore confidence. He was opposed to any for- 




General McClellan. 



362 The Civil War 

ward movement until he could organize and discipline the 
mass of recruits that came pouring into Washington. Mean- 
while, Johnston and Beauregard wanted to invade Maryland, 
which was certainly sound poUcy from a military point of view, 
but for political reasons President Davis was opposed to any 
offensive movement, and insisted on acting on the defensive. 

On November 1, 1861, General Scott resigned his com- 
mand on account of the infirmities of age, and McClellan 
was placed in command of all the armies of the United States. 
He continued to take his time in organizing the Army of 
the Potomac, and paid no heed to the popular demand that 
he attack Johnston at Manassas. The president and 
cabinet were bent on operations before winter, but in De- 
cember McClellan was taken ill with typhoid fever, and 
it was the middle of January before he could take up his 
official duties again. 

The Federal cause met with its first striking success in 
the West. Before the close of 1861 the Union forces had 
Federal occupied the greater part of Missouri, but the 
successes in southern portion of the state was still held by the 

^ ^^ Confederates. In Kentucky the campaign of 
1862 opened with the Confederates under Albert Sidney 
Johnston holding a line from Columbus on the Mississippi 
to Bowling Green. Facing them were the Federal forces 
under General Halleck commanding the Department of 
Missouri with headquarters at St. Louis, and the Army of 
the Ohio under General Buell concentrated between Louis- 
ville and Bowling Green. Grant had a smaller force at 
Cairo, which was under the general command of Halleck 
and known as the Army of the Tennessee. 

In northern Tennessee, near the Kentucky border, the 
Confederates had constructed Fort Henry on the east bank 
of the Tennessee River and Fort Donelson twelve miles 
away on the west bank of the Cumberland. On February 
3, 1862, Grant started up the Tennessee against Fort Henry 



The Opening Campaigns 



363 



with 15,000 men and a fleet of seventeen gunboats under 
Commodore Foote. Four of these were partially protected 
with armor and had been constructed for the government 
by J. B. Eads of St. Louis. 



M I s s ou/r I 



|Pro\uiut>ui 




inempms ^hiloh ^^p^T^-j^J^Chattang^' 

y^J Hon, spl^l'^^'^p^^^^^ 

MISSISSIPPI / "Ww^f* \ G E^O/R G I A 

* A L A B A M A \ ^J* 

SCALE OF MILES . ^J 

_Ji I ' ' \SY 

50 100 150 200 §f 



Operations in the West, 1862. 

Fort Henry was commanded by high bluffs across the 
river and there was little hope of holding it, so General 
Tilghman decided to send his infantry to Fort Fall of Fort 
Donelson, while he remained in the fort with Henry 
one company of artillery in order to gain time for the infan- 
try to make their escape. After an hour and a half of 
bombardment, Tilghman surrendered Fort Henry on Feb- 
ruary 6. This was the first important success won by the 
Federals in either theater of the war. 

On the following day Johnston ordered the troops to fall 
back from Bowling Green to Nashville, and at the same 
time sent 12,000 men to reenforce the garrison Fall of Fort 
at Donelson. This was a bad move. He should Donelson 
have fought Grant with his whole force at Donelson. This 



364 The Civil War 

would have been the surest way to protect Nashville. Grant 
sent his gunboats down the Tennessee and up the Cumber- 
land, while his army marched against Fort Donelson on the 
12th of February. On the 14th the gunboats began the 
attack, but were forced to retire. The guns at Fort Don- 
elson were placed high above the water, practically unas- 
sailable by gunboats, and they commanded a clear stretch 
of the river. Grant and Foote now determined to reduce 
theiort by regular siege operations. The Confederate gar- 
rison numbered 18,000, about the same as Grant's force, but 
Generals Floyd, Pillow, and Buckner thought they were greatly 
outnumbered and decided to cut their way out to Nashville. 
Grant succeeded in stopping this movement and forcing 
them back into the fort with heavy losses on both sides. 

It was now too late for the entire Confederate force to with- 
draw and Fort Donelson had been rendered untenable. Floyd 
and Pillow left by steamer with some of their infantry, and 
Forrest rode out with his cavalry, but Buckner remained in 
command and on February 16, 1862, surrendered with 
about 12,000 men. The fall of Fort Donelson made a 
profound impression. The North was exalted and the 
South correspondingly depressed. Kentucky was now 
secured to the Federal cause and the way was opened for the 
invasion of Tennessee. 

The double success laid the basis of Grant's military 
reputation, though at the time his superior, Halleck, from 
Invasion of his headquarters at St. Louis, claimed the chief 
Tennessee credit. In fact for a time Grant was actually 
superseded in the command of the Army of the Tennessee, 
but the misunderstanding which had arisen between him 
and Halleck was soon cleared up, and on March 17 he re- 
sumed command of his army at Savannah in western Ten- 
nessee. Buell occupied Nashville late in February and 
Johnston retreated to Murfreesboro, but the roads were 
so bad that Buell did not follow him. 



The Opening Campaigns 



365 



Johnston, however, soon withdrew into northern Alabama 
in order to establish connections with Beauregard, who was 
collecting the scattered garrisons from the upper Mississippi 
forts at Memphis and holding the railroad line from Memphis 
to Corinth. On March 10 the Confederates evacuated 
Columbus on the Mississippi and retired down the river to 
New Madrid and Island No. 10. Pope was sent by Halleck 
to attack this new position. On March 11 President Lin- 
coln created the new department of the Mississippi and 

placed Halleck in command of all 
the forces in the West. The new 
department was a good thing, but 
Halleck proved an unfortunate 
choice for commander. 

As Johnston and Beauregard 
were concentrating at Corinth, 

Halleck ordered Buell, 
, ... -^ , Battle of 

who was still at Nash- shUoh, or 
ville, to unite his forces Pittsburg 
with those of Grant 
at Savannah on the Tennessee 
River north of Pittsburg Landing. 
Halleck did not expect the Con- 
federates to take the offensive and 
was in no hurry to arrive at the front and assume command. 
March 29 Johnston assumed command at Corinth of the 
united Confederate forces, now numbering 40,000 men, and 
determined to attack Grant before Buell could join him. 

Buell's division began arriving at Savannah about noon, 
April 5. Grant was very careless about the disposition 
of his forces, and made no effort to get Buell's division 
across the river. Sherman occupied the advanced position 
of Grant's army, with headquarters about two miles from 
Pittsburg Landing on the Corinth road near Shiloh Church. 
On Sunday morning, April 6, at 6 a.m., the Confederates 




General Albert Sidney 
Johnston. 



366 The Civil War 

fell on Sherman's division at Shiloh and drove them back 
from one position to another until they finally stood their 
ground on Snake Creek. 

Grant, who had spent the night at Savannah and has- 
tened over in the morning when he heard the firing, had a 
hard time holding his position, which became known as the 
"Hornet's Nest." Early in the afternoon Johnston, who 
was leading Bragg's division against Grant, was killed. This 
caused delay and Bragg's division was drawn off late in the 
day by order of Beauregard. During the night Grant got 
about 25,000 fresh troops over the river. The Confederates 
renewed the attack at 5 a.m. the next morning, but were 
repulsed. The losses on both sides were heavy ; the Federal 
loss being considerably over 10,000, and the Confederate 
only a few hundred less. Shiloh was the first large battle 
in the West, and the bloodiest which had at that time been 
fought in America. The death of the brilliant Albert Sidney 
Johnston was a great loss to the Confederacy. 

Halleck arrived April 11. He was in no hurry to ad- 
vance, but awaited the arrival of Pope's army. On April 8 
Pope had captured 7000 Confederates at Island 
forces seize No. 10 and New Madrid. By May 1 Beaure- 
Memphis gard had been reenforced to 50,000 men, but he 
did not care to risk another battle, for Halleck's 
forces now numbered 100,000. The latter advanced very 
cautiously, intrenching each position. On May 29 Beaure- 
gard evacuated Corinth and fell back to Tupelo, fifty miles 
south on the Mobile and Ohio Railway. On June 6 the 
Confederate fleet of gunboats was destroyed at Memphis 
and the Federals took possession. With the occupation of 
Memphis and Corinth, the spring campaign in the West 
came to an end. The Memphis and Charleston Railway was 
held by the Federals ; the Mississippi had been opened from 
the Ohio to Vicksburg, and Kentucky and Tennessee were 
in the hands of the Union forces. 



The Opening Campaigns 



307 



Meanwhile, Commodore David Glasgow Farragut was 
opening the Mississippi from the mouth. New Orleans was 
considerably the largest city in the Confederacy xhe capture 
and a great commercial center. About ninety of New 
miles below the city were Forts St. Philip and ^ ^^^^ 
Jackson, and there was a Confederate naval force in the river 
under Commodore Mitchell. On April 18, 1862, the Federal 
mortar flotilla under David D. Porter opened fire on the forts. 
Over 16,000 shells were fired at 
them in six days, but they did not 
surrender. On April 20 the boom 
across the river was broken by 
Lieutenant Caldwell on the Itasca 
and on the 24th Farragut ran past 
the batteries with his fleet and 
attacked the Confederate naval 
flotilla above. Farragut's force 
was greatly superior and he had 
an easy victory. 

On the 25th at noon the fleet, 
having silenced the batteries near 
the city, appeared before New 
Orleans. Among the population 
of 160,000 the wildest confusion prevailed. On May 1 
General Benjamin F. Butler disembarked with his troops 
and took command of the city. His harsh rule aroused the 
intense hatred of the entire South, and his name became a 
byword for arbitrary conduct and official corruption. 

Farragut proceeded up the river; Baton Rouge and 
Natchez surrendered at the first summons, and no resist- 
ance was encountered until Vicksburg was 

Vicksbu£f 

reached. Vicksburg, midway between New stuiheidby 
Orleans and Memphis, about four hundred miles *^« ^°^- 
from each, is situated on a high bluff commanding 
the river, and is an exceptionally strong position. The 




Admirai- Farragut. 



3G8 



The Civil War 



Confederates had spared no effort or expense in fortifying 
it. On June 28 Farragut ran past Vicksburg with most of 
his fleet, but he could not silence the forts. 

While Farragut was opening the Mississippi, McClellan 
had transported his army to Fortress Monroe in order to 
McCieiian's ^-flvance on Richmond by way of the Peninsula, 
plan of His plan was at first opposed by Lincoln and the 

campaign politicians because of the fear that it would expose 
Washington to attack. They wanted to keep the army be- 




NORFOEK, HAMPTON ROADS, 

AND VJCINITY 
SCALE OF MILES 



tween Washington and the Confederates and to advance 
on Richmond by the direct route. McClellan 's plan was 



The Opening Campaigns 



369 



finally agreed to, and while he was preparing to move his 
army the entire North was thrown into a state of conster- 
nation by the appearance in Hampton Roads of the recently 
constructed Confederate ironclad Virginia. 

The United States ship Merrimac had been burned when 
the Norfolk Navy Yard was abandoned. The Confed- 
erates raised the hull ^heM "- 
and covered her with mac and the 
heavy armor made by ^°"'''"' 
joining; railroad rails together. 
She was rechristened the Vir- 
ginia, though at the North she 
continued to be known as the 
Merrimac. When she appeared 
in Hampton Roads, March 8, 
1862, she at once attacked the 
Federal squadron of wooden 
ships. She rammed the Cumber- 
land and sank her, fired the 
Congress and forced her crew to 
surrender, and ran the Minnesota 
and other members of the squad- 
ron into shallow water. The 
next morning she returned to 
complete the destruction of the 
Federal fleet, but during the night Ericsson's Monitor, 
which had been built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, had ap- 
peared on the scene. Most of the Monitor was submerged 
and her characteristic feature was the revolving gun turret, 
which gave her a greater range of action than any ship 
hitherto constructed. She was described by those who 
first saw her as resembling a cheesebox on a raft. As soon as 
the Merrimac sighted the Monitor they made for each other. 
The fight began about eight-thirty on the morning of 
March 9. For hours the two ships pounded each other 




John Ericsson, inventor of 
the Monitor. 



370 



The Civil War 



at close range, but most of the shots glanced off without 
doing much damage. The Merrimac tried in vain to ram 
A e lution ^^^ Monitor, but that craft being more easily 
in naval handled successfully eluded these attempts, 
warfare Finally about 1 P.M. the Monitor withdrew to 

shallow water with her pilot house damaged and her 
commander bhnded. As the Merrimac could not get at her 
adversary, she returned to Norfolk to repair her injuries. 

When Norfolk was abandoned a few weeks later, the 
Merrimac was not ready to put to sea, and owing to her 
heavy draft it was impossible to take her up the James, so 
she was destroyed by the Confederates. On December 30 
the Monitor foundered off Cape Hatteras on her way to 
join the blockading squadron before Charleston. This 
fight had, however, revolutionized naval warfare. The 
North at once began building turreted ships of the Monitor 
type, and the revolving turret was destined to be the 
characteristic feature of the later 
battleship. 

McClellan arrived at Fortress 
Monroe April 2. He again dis- 
played his usual de- 
oAhe"^"^ liberation. With an 

Peninsular army of 100,000 men 
campaign , 

he spent a month 

besieging Yorktown. On April 
17 Joseph E. Johnston took com- 
mand in person at Yorktown, 
having under him 53,000 men. 
He had no idea of undergoing 
a bombardment and timed his 
evacuation nicely, withdrawing 

his army May 3, three days before McClellan's intended at- 
tack. McClellan was taken by surprise, but gave orders for 
immediate pursuit. On May 5 the Federal army was 




General Joseph E. Johnston. 



The Opening Campaigns 371 

checked with heavy loss at WilHamsburg, but Johnston 
continued his retreat to Richmond. McClellan consumed a 
fortnight in moving his army from Williamsburg to the 
Chickahominy, a distance of forty or fifty miles. 

The James River, now in possession of the Federal navy 
from its mouth to Drewry's Bluff, eight miles below Richmond, 
would have offered a much better base, but President Lin- 
coln had held McDowell with a large force at Alexandria, 
and later near Fredericksburg, in order to protect Washing- 
ton, and the plan was for this force to connect with Mc- 
Clellan's right. Therefore, instead of advancing up the 
James, McClellan had to approach Richmond along the 
Chickahominy from the east, so that he could connect with 
McDowell. On May 24 he was informed that 20,000 of 
McDowell's troops had been ordered to the Valley to co- 
operate with Fremont against Stonewall Jackson, who was 
chasing Banks toward Harper's Ferry. 

Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862 was one of the most 
brilliant recorded in military annals. Late in February a 
Federal army under General Banks crossed the 

Tflcksou's 

Potomac and occupied Winchester and Strasburg. vaUeyCam- 
A part of this force was later sent east to Manassas P^j^n of 
and the rest fell back to Winchester. Jackson 
pursued with a greatly inferior force, and was repulsed with 
heavy loss at Kernstown March 23, 1862. Banks pursued 
Jackson up the Valley with 19,000 men, leaving several 
thousand to guard Harper's Ferry. Across the mountains 
in West Virginia Fremont had within easy reach 15,000 men 
in different detachments which he was slowly concentrating 
for the purpose of uniting with Banks in the Valley. 

As Banks's advance reached Harrisonburg, Jackson, who 
had with him between 7000 and 8000 men, moved into 
Elk Run Valley, east of the Massanutten Mountain, so as 
to be in communication with Ewell's division of about 9000, 
which was holding the line of the Rapidan. As Jackson's 



372 



The Civil War 



total force of less than 17,000 men was opposed by 40,000, 
it was necessary for him to fight before Fremont and Banks 
could unite. Early in May Jackson summoned Ewell to 
watch Banks and with his own force mysteriously left the 
Valley. It was generally believed that he was on his way to 
join Johnston at Richmond, but after crossing the Blue 

Ridge he put his troops aboard 
train and rushed them west to 
Staunton. He then marched 
rapidly to the village of Mc- 
Dowell, twenty-seven miles 
northwest of Staunton, and sud- 
denly fell on one of Fremont's 
detachments under General Mil- 
roy. This force was utterly 
routed and Fremont's move- 
ments for the time being para- 
lyzed. 

Hurrying back to Staunton, 
Jackson at once started down 
the Valley, suddenly crossed the 
Massanutten range so as to unite with Ewell at Luray, de- 
Cross Keys Seated a Federal force at Front Royal, and sent 
and Port Banks in full flight over the Potomac with the loss 
epu ic ^£ ^^g third of his army and all his baggage and 
supplies. Shields's division was immediately detached from 
McDowell's corps and sent back to the Valley to prevent 
Jackson from following Banks into Maryland. McClellan's 
plans were thus thwarted at a critical moment. Shields 
recaptured Front Royal, but Jackson promptly retired up 
the Valley to Woodstock. 

Fremont came over the mountains from West Virginia 
and started in pursuit of Jackson, while Shields moved 
up the Luray Valley, east of the Massanutten Mountain. 
Jackson retired to Harrisonburg and then turned east to 




General " Stonewall ' 
Jackson. 



The Opening Campaigns 373 

Port Republic, where he held the only bridge by which his 
pursuers could unite. On June 6 General Turner Ashby, 
the brilHant commander of Jackson's cavalry, was killed in 
a skirmish two or three miles south of Harrisonburg. On 
the 8th Fremont was repulsed at Cross Keys and on the 
following day Jackson fell upon Shields at Port Republic 
and crushed him. During this battle Fremont burned the 
bridges in Jackson's rear so that the latter could not turn on 
him as he had intended. With his enemies in full retreat 
Jackson again mj'^steriously left the Valley and riding ahead 
of his troops quietly entered Richmond on the 23d for a 
conference with Lee. 

Meanwhile, there had been heavy fighting around Rich- 
mond. On May 31 General Johnston attacked the two 
corps of McClellan's army south of the Chicka- 
homiriy. The heaviest fighting took place at assumes 
Seven Pines. It was indecisive, but Johnston was command of 
wounded. The fight was renewed the next morn- federate 
ing in a half-hearted way, but at 2 p.m., June 1, army before 
General Lee, who had been acting as military 
adviser to President Davis, arrived on the scene and took 
command of the army, which he withdrew to Richmond. 
This battle, together with the heavy rains which washed 
away several of the bridges over the Chickahominy, kept 
McClellan quiet for some time. The latter also made a 
new disposition of his troops, placing them all south of the 
river, except the corps commanded by Fitz-John Porter. 
June 12 to 15 General J. E. B. Stuart made his famous ride 
around McClellan's army, cutting off communications, de- 
stroying large bodies of stores, and discovering for General 
Lee the location and strength of the Federal forces. 

As soon as General Lee received Stuart's report he de- 
cided to call Jackson from the Valley and to hurl Lee's bold 
his force on the right of Porter's isolated corps, strategy 
A. P. Hill was to cross over the Chickahominy at 



374 The Civil War 

Meadow Bridge and advance toward Mechanicsville, thus 
causing the Federals to abandon the Mechanicsville bridge 
and enable Longstreet and D. H. Hill to cross. This plan 
involved a division of Lee's army. Fifty thousand Con- 
federates would be concentrated against Porter and only 
27,000 would be left to face McClellan. McClellan had 
75,000 men south of the Chickahominy. General Lee took 
the chance, however. He knew McClellan well and while 
he considered him an able fighter, he did not consider him 
capable of bold S'trategy. 

Jackson's division was half a day late in arriving on the 
scene of action. A. P. Hill waited at Meadow Bridge until 
3 o'clock on June 26, then, fearing further 
Mechanics- ^^^^l^y? ^c crossed the river and came in front of 
viiieana Porter, but he met with a bloody repulse at 
Games s Mechanicsville. The next morning at daylight 
Porter, learning that Jackson was in his rear, 
retired to a strong position east of Gaines's Mill, his troops 
forming a semicircle with the extremities on the river cover- 
ing two bridges. 

The battle began about 2 : 30 p.m. in an attack by A. P. 
Hill, who hurled his troops in vain against the strong Federal 
position. Longstreet and Jackson, not knowing of the 
strength of Porter's position, were both waiting for Hill to 
dislodge him. At this time the Confederate army had a 
very poor staff organization, and the lack of cooperation 
was due to this fact. After the fight had raged for an hour 
Jackson began a general advance. Night found Porter's 
troops exhausted and his center pierced. He fell back hastily 
to the bridges, leaving 22 guns and 2800 prisoners in the 
hands of the Confederates. The timely arrival of Sumner's 
brigades was all that prevented a rout. During the night 
Porter got his troops across the river. 

McClellan now decided to retreat to the James. This 
decision disconcerted General Lee, who expected him to 



The Opening Campaigns 375 

retreat to his base on the Pamunkcy. As most of Lee's 
troops were across the Chickahoniiny, an entire day, June 
28, was lost before the Confederate advantage Malvern 
could be pressed. On June 29 and 30 there was ^iii 
fighting along White Oak Swamp and at Frayser's Farm. 
Here again the poor staff organization was in evidence, and 
Jackson's troops were slow in getting into action. Of Lee's 
75,000 men, only 25,000 were actually engaged. 

During the night of June 30 General Lee decided, against 
the judgment of Stonewall Jackson, to attack McClellan's 
position at Malvern HiU. On the following day a short 
but fierce engagement ensued, in which the Confederates 
lost 5000 men, and the Federals about one third of that 
number. McClellan, however, continued his retreat to 
Harrison's Landing, where he was within reach of his gun- 
boats and transports, and there was nothing to do but watch 
his movements. In the entire seven days' fighting the 
Confederates lost 20,000 and the Federals 16,000. The 
Confederates, however, captured 52 guns and 35,000 rifles, 
partially filling the much-felt need of modern weapons. 

At the first news of McClellan's repulse, Washington 
was again thrown into a state of consternation, and General 
Pope was called from the West and given com- Loggof con- 
mand of the armies of Fremont, Banks, and fidenc|in 
McDowell, in order to defend Washington. The McCieTtan 
Administration had lost confidence in McClellan and Gen- 
eral Halleck was called East and placed in command of all 
the armies of the United States. On July 25 Halleck went 
to Harrison's Landing to confer with McClellan. The 
latter wanted to renew operations along the James and 
to cut the line of communication with Petersburg, but he 
demanded 20,000 more troops, still laboring under the de- 
lusion that Lee had 200,000. On August 3 the government 
recalled the Army of the Potomac in spite of McClellan's 
protest. 



376 



The Civil War 



When Pope assumed command before Washington, he 
issued a bombastic address to his troops, saying that in the 
General West they were in the habit of seeing the backs 
Pope in of their enemies. He also remarked, when asked 

command in , i i • i i i i • 

northern where he would make his headquarters, that his 
Virginia headquarters would be in the saddle. His plan 
was to seize Gordonsville, where the railroad from Richmond 
to the Valley intersected the line from Washington to the 

South, but General Lee sent 
Jackson to that point and later 
A. P. Hill to reenforce him. It 
was important for the Confed- 
erates to deliver a blow before 
Pope could be reenforced by the 
Army of the Potomac, and Jack- 
son decided to advance to Cul- 
peper Court House. On August 
9, 1862, Jackson had a sharp 
fight at Cedar Run, seven miles 
south of Culpeper, with his old 
opponent Banks, in which the 
latter was finally driven back 
with heavy losses. On August 
13, as soon as Lee saw that McClellan was embarking his 
troops, he sent Longstreet's division toward Gordonsville, 
and on the 15th he arrived himself and held a council of 
war. After maneuvering along the line of the Rapidan, Pope 
withdrew his forces behind the Rappahannock. 

Lee finally decided on the bold plan of again dividing 

his army in the face of the enemy and sending Jackson 

with 25,000 men around through Thoroughfare 

flank move- Gap for the purpose of falling upon Pope's stores 

ment to g^j^^j communications and forcing him from his 

TyTs.n.fl.ssQ.s 

position. Several miles west of Manassas lies 
the small range of the Bull Run Mountains. The principal 




General Longstreet. 



The Opening Campaigns 377 

break in this range is Thoroughfare Gap. Jackson's army 
started on its long circuitous march August 25. On the 
26th he passed through the Gap and turned southeast to 
Bristoe Station. Here he was thirteen miles in the rear of 
Pope's headquarters and right across his line of communica- 
tions. Stuart's cavalry with a small detachment of infantry 
went to Manassas station that night and destroyed immense 
stores of supplies, after taking all that they could carry 
away. 

As soon as Pope realized that Jackson was in his rear he 
began concentrating his troops between Warrenton and 
Gainesville. Jackson, however, had fallen back Popeout- 
to a position between Gainesville and Bull Run, generaied 
near the field of the first great fight, to await the arrival of 
Lee and Longstreet's division. Had Pope acted on Mc- 
Dowell's advice and seized Thoroughfare Gap he might have 
prevented the union of the two wings of the Confederate 
army, but he seems to have been completely mystified by 
the movements of Lee and Jackson and let the opportunity 
slip. On the 28th Jackson repulsed the Federal attack at 
Gainesville, with heavy losses on both sides, and the follow- 
ing day he was being hard pressed at Groveton when Long- 
street's division arrived. 

On the 30th Pope renewed the attack and for hours the 
battle raged on the already historic field of Bull Run, but 
with the positions of the Union and Confederate second 
armies in large part reversed. The Federal battle of 
forces were finally repulsed all along the line ^*°*^^*^ 
and made their last stand on the Henry House hill. When 
night came on the Federal left wing still held the crest of 
the hill, but under cover of darkness the whole Federal 
army retired across Bull Run to Centerville. Here Pope 
assumed a strong position. Although his army still largely 
outnumbered that of Lee, he continued his retreat on the 
following day to the fortifications at Washington. Two of 



378 * The Civil War 

McClellan's corps joined Pope before the battle, but Fitz- 
John Porter, who commanded one of them, was charged 
with failure to cooperate. After a long trial he was cashiered, 
but it appeared later that great injustice had been done him 
and years afterward he was restored to his place in the 
army by special act of Congress, 

On September 3 McClellan, whose army had been brought 
up the Potomac to Alexandria, was placed in command of 
Results f ^^^ defenses of Washington, and a few days 
the later Pope was relieved of his command and 

campaign McClellan again placed in charge of the army. 
Lee's campaign had been a brilliant success. He had driven 
the enemy from the Rappahannock to the defenses at Wash- 
ington. He had captured thirty guns, 20,000 rifles, and 7000 
prisoners, and inflicted on the Federals the loss of 13,500 in 
killed and wounded. His own loss was 10,000. 

TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. First Manassas, or Bull Run : Wood and Edmonds, CmZ TFar 
in the United States, Chap. V ; Rhodes, History of the United 
States, Vol. Ill, pp. 443-457; W. H. Russell, My Diary North 
and South, pp. 434-478; J. K. Hosmer, Appeal to Arms, Chap. IV; 
G. F. R. Henderson, Stonewall Jackson, Vol. I, Chap. VI ; J. C. 
Ropes, Story of the Civil War, Chap. IX. 

2. Federal Successes in the West: Wood and Edmonds, 
Chap. XIII; Rhodes, Vol. Ill, pp. .581-600, 617-628; Hosmer, 
Chap. VI ; Ropes, Vol. II, Chap. I ; U. S. Grant, Personal Memoirs, 
Chaps. XXI-XXIV. 

3. The Fall of New Orleans: Rhodes, Vol. Ill, pp. 629-630; 
Hosmer, Chap. VIII ; E. S. Maclay, History of the Navy, Vol. II, 
Chaps. IX, X ; Jefferson Davis, Rise and Fall of Confederate Gov- 
ernment, Vol. II, Chaps. XXVIII, XXIX. 

4. The Fight between the Merrimac and Monitor: Rhodes, 
V9I. Ill, pp. 608-614 ; Maelay, Vol. II, Chaps. V, VI ; Allan, Army 
of Northern Virginia, pp. 10-11, 27-28; Jefferson Davis, Rise and 
Fall of Confederate Government, Vol. II, Chap. XXVII ; Battles and 
Leaders, Vol. I, pp. 692-744; J. T. Scharf, Confederate States Navy, 
Chaps. VII-X. 



The Opening Campaigns 379 

5. The Peninsular Campaign: Wood and Edmonds, Chap. VII; 
Rhodes, Vol. IV, pp. 1-10; Hosmer, Chap. IX; Ropes, Vol. II, 
pp. 99-110; E. P. Alexander, Military Memoirs of a Confederate, 
Chaps. IV, V ; A. L. Long, Memoirs of Robert E. Lee, Chap. IX ; 
W. Allan, Army of Northern Virginia, pp. 1-64. 

6. Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862: Wood and Edmonds, 
Chap. IX; Rhodes, Vol. IV, pp. 11-23; Hosmer, Chap. X; 
Henderson, Stonewall Jackson, Vol. I, Chaps. VIII-XII ; W. Allan, 
Jackson's Valley Campaign. 

7. The Seven Days' Fighting around Richmond : Wood and 
Edmonds, Chap. VIII; Rhodes, Vol. IV, pp. 24-54; Hosmer, 
Chap. XI; Ropes, Vol. II, pp. 132-212; Henderson, Stoneivall 
Jackson, Vol. II, Chaps. XIII, XIV; Alexander, Chaps. VIII-X ; 
Long, Chap. X ; Allan, Army of Northern Virginia, pp. 70-150. 

8. Second Manassas : Wood and Edmonds, Chap. X ; Rhodes, 
Vol. IV, pp. 97-138 ; Hosmer, Chap. XII ; Ropes, Vol. II, pp. 218- 
310; Henderson, Stonewall Jackson, Vol. II, Chaps. XVI, XVII; 
Alexander, Chap. XI ; Long, Chap. XI ; Allan, Army of Northern 
Virginia, pp. 197-321. 



CHAPTER XXII 
THE fflGH TIDE OF THE CONFEDERACY 

After the overwhelming defeat of Pope at Second 
Manassas, General Lee decided to invade Maryland, and 
.pjjg having gained the consent of President Davis, his 

Antietam troops crossed the Potomac September 4 and 5 
campaign ^^^^ occupied Frederick City. On September 15 
Jackson captured Harper's Ferry, with the entire garrison 
of 12,500 men, and reunited with Lee before McClellan 
was ready to attack. Lee's full strength was now barely 
50,000. McClellan advanced toward Frederick City with 
85,000 men, and Lee decided to make his stand behind the 
Antietam River. At Frederick McClellan came into pos- 
session of a dispatch lost by one of Lee's staff officers, 
which revealed the Confederate plan of campaign, but he 
failed to make full use of the opportunity which it presented. 

On September 17 occurred the battle of Antietam, called 
by the Confederates the battle of Sharpsburg. McClellan's 
attempts to crush the Confederate left failed. The center 
was the next point of attack, but A. P. Hill's division reen- 
forced the line at this point, and the Federals were again 
repulsed. McClellan's losses in this battle were over 12,000, 
while General Lee's were 9500. Tactically, the Confederates 
had slightly the advantage, and on the day following the 
battle the forces stood facing each other, but McClellan de- 
clined to renew the contest, and Lee was not strong enough 
to attack him. As a decisive victory was necessary to enable 
General Lee to maintain himself north of the Potomac, 
he withdrew during the night, and the following day his 

380 



High Tide of the Confederacy 381 

entire command recrossed into Virginia. The fruits of the 
campaign lay with McClellan. 

President Lincoln took advantage of Lee's repulse to issue 
his preliminary proclamation of emancipation. He had 
been considering this measure for some months, 
but, notwithstanding the pressure brought to bear ^^^^^^"^ 
on him by the abolitionists, there were weighty tionof 
reasons for not sooner taking the step. In the t^n*^"^*" 
first place he had insisted at the outset that the 
war was being waged solely for the restoration of the Union 
and that he had no constitutional right or intention of inter- 
fering with the domestic institutions of any State. Then, 
too, the announcement of such a policy at an earlier date 
would have caused serious disaffection in the border States, 
particularly in Kentucky. The border States were now 
secured, so that this reason no longer held. 

Furthermore, feeUng at the North had undergone a marked 
change and abolition sentiment had made great headway. 
The South, on the other hand, was in great dread of a slave 
uprising, though events proved that there was no ground for 
such fears. President Lincoln hoped, therefore, not only 
to unite the North by turning the war into a crusade against 
slavery, but also to make the negroes the secret friends of 
the North and to compel many Southerners to leave the army 
and return to the plantations to protect their women and 
children. Of greatest weight, however, was the probable 
effect of the proclamation on public opinion abroad, partic- 
ularly in England, where the cabinet was then seriously 
considering a proposition to recognize the independence of 
the Confederacy. 

The proclamation was strictly a war measure. A month 
before it was issued President Lincoln wrote to Horace 
Greeley: "If I could save the Union without a war 
freeing any slave I would do it ; and if I could measure 
save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it ; and if I could 



382 The Civil War 

save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would do 
that also." This last was the course he followed, for the 
proclamation declared that on the first day of January, 1863, 
"all persons held as slaves within any State or designated 
part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebelUon 
against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and 
forever free." The holding of slaves in the border States that 
remained in the Union was still legal, as the war power under 
which the president acted did not extend to these States. 

After Antietam General Lee slowly crossed the Potomac 
without any effort on McClellan's part to hinder him. It 
McClelian ^^^ more than a month before the president and 
again cabinet could persuade McClelian to follow the 

supersede Confederate army into Virginia. Lee remained 
for awhile in the Valley. He then sent Longstreet's corps 
across the Blue Ridge to Culpeper Court House, while he 
kept Jackson in the Valley to menace McClellan's com- 
munications, and to threaten another invasion of Maryland. 
McClelian was preparing an advance on Longstreet before 
the latter could be reenforced, when on November 7 he was 
relieved of command and Burnside appointed to take his 
place. McClellan's egotism and want of respect for the 
president were almost intolerable. Furthermore, he was 
opposed to emancipation and was already spoken of as a 
possible Democratic candidate for the presidency. With 
all his shortcomings, he was the best commander the Army 
of the Potomac ever had. Burnside who succeeded him 
was probably the most incompetent general officer then serv- 
ing in that army. 

The new commander resolved to abandon McClellan's 
plan, move his army down the Rappahannock to Fredericks- 
The battle of ^^^^' cross the river at that point, and push 
Fredericks- steadily forward to Richmond. Lee succeeded 
^^^ again in uniting the two wings of his army, and 

took up an exceedingly strong position at Fredericksburg. 



High Tide of the Confederacy 383 

On December 13, 1862, Burnside, spurred on by the im- 
patience of the cabinet at Washington, crossed the river 
and made a frontal attack on Lee's position. He was 
repulsed with teriible slaughter. Lee was unable to deliver 
a counterstroke, as the Federal retreat was secured by six 
bridges and the batteries massed on Stafford Heights. 
Throughout the 14th and 15th, the two armies lay facing 
each other. On the night of the 15th during a severe storm, 
Burnside withdrew his army to the north bank. 

On January 26, 1863, Burnside was removed and Hooker 
appointed to succeed him. Hooker had gained the reputa- 
tion of a hard fighter. He had been strongly ji^q^^j. 
opposed to Burnside and had intrigued against succeeds 
him. He seemed to be the most competent man in "'^"^^ ® 
the Army of the Potomac and President Lincoln did not wish 
to try another man from the West after his experience with 
Pope. After reorganizing his army. Hooker decided to turn 
Lee's left by crossing the Rappahannock River by several 
fords higher up and concentrating his right wing of four corps 
at Chancellorsville. Meanwhile, Sedgwick was to cross the 
river below Fredericksburg with two corps and hold the 
Confederate army in its intrenched position. Another 
corps was to remain at Falmouth in reserve. 

On April 27 the movement began. On May 1 Hooker 
advanced from Chancellorsville against the Confederate 
Unes, but Jackson had united with Lee and the Confed- 
erates were so much stronger than Hooker expected that 
when his advance was sharply checked, he fell back to his 
line at Chancellorsville. The Confederate position was a 
dangerous one. The Federal center and left were impreg- 
nable, but Stuart reported that the Federal right could be 
turned. 

Lee and Jackson now undertook a bold move. About 
4 A.M. on May 2 Jackson's corps set out on a fourteen-mile 
•detour for the purpose of turning Hooker's right. Jack- 



384 The Civil War 

son took with him 26,000 men, while Lee with 17,000 
undertook to keep Hooker employed. Hooker had 70,000 
Battle of ^^^ ^^^ ^™ ^^^ 40,000 with Sedgwick, only 
Chancellors- eleven miles distant. The Confederate plan was 
^'"® reckless in the extreme, but some desperate move 

was necessary. At 6 p.m. Jackson fell on Howard's corps, 
taking them completely by surprise. It was supper time, the 
men were smoking, playing cards, and preparing the evening 
meal. In ten minutes the first Federal brigade was in full 
flight, and a quarter of an hour later the whole division was 
in flight. 

About 7 P.M. the Confederate advance became slower, owing 
to the character of the country, and Jackson rode forward to 
Death of make a reconnoissance. As he and his staff re- 
stonewaii turned, a company of North Carohna infantry mis- 
Jackson ^^^j, them for Federal cavalry and fired several 
shots, wounding Jackson. 

On the morning of the 3d the Confederate army was 
still divided and in a dangerous condition. Either on that 
day or the next Hooker could have assumed the offensive 
with good chances of an overwhelming victory, but he de- 
layed and hesitated and lost his nerve. With a force double 
the size of Lee's, Hooker allowed himself to be defeated in 
detail and finally driven back across the Rappahannock. 
Considering the numbers engaged it was the worst defeat 
suffered by any Union army during the war. The death of 
Jackson on May 10 made Chancellorsville in a way the 
turning point of the war. The great flank marches at 
Second Manassas and at Chancellorsville are lasting monu- 
ments of the united daring and genius of Lee and Jackson, 
Lee decides For a month the two armies faced each other 
on an q^ opposite banks of the Rappahannock. Presi- 

Pennsyi- dent Davis still advocated a defensive policy and 
vania gtin hoped that the "Copperheads" at the North 

or foreign intervention would put an end to the war. Lee 



High Tide of the Confederacy 385 

was convinced that the only hope of dislodging the enemy 
and defending Richmond lay in an invasion of the North. 
Davis finally consented to a forward movement and on 
June 3 Lee started in the direction of Culpeper. In a great 
cavalry fight at Brandy Station Stuart defeated Pleasanton. 
Lee then advanced over into the Valley by way of Front 
Royal, and Hooker withdrew from Falmouth toward Wash- 
ington. 

Lee now determined to invade Pennsylvania with his 
entire army by way of the Cumberland Valley. Ewell's 
corps led the way. On the 23d two divisions reached 
Chambersburg and Early was sent to York. The corps 
of Longstreet and Hill crossed the Potomac on the 24th, 
and the following day Hooker crossed with his army and 
occupied Frederick City. His plan was to move along the 
eastern base of the South Mountain Range and at the first 
opportunity to attack Lee's line of communications. The 
government had, however, lost confidence in Hooker and on 
the refusal of Halleck to approve of some of his plans he 
tendered his resignation. It was promptly accepted and 
on June 28 General George Gordon Meade was appointed 
to command. Meade abandoned Hooker's idea of threaten- 
ing Lee's communications and decided to intervene between 
him and Philadelphia in case he marched north, or between 
him and Baltimore and Washington in case he turned south. 

The two armies rapidly converged on Gettsyburg, much 
more rapidly than either commander anticipated. The 
absence of Stuart's cavalry kept General Lee in _ 

r- 1 T-i 1 1 The two 

the dark as to the movements of the r ederal armies con- 
army. Stuart had swept around the rear of verge on 

,1 1 , , T^ 1 • Gettysburg 

that army and crossed the Potomac between it 
and Washington. The rapid advance of the Federals had 
forced him to make a long detour to the northeast and he 
did not reach Gettysburg until the afternoon of the second 
day's fight. As a result of Stuart's absence Hooker had 



386 The Civil War 

been over the Potomac three days before General Lee knew 
it, and now the latter was not accurately informed as to 
Meade's movements. 

While the various Confederate divisions were being drawn 
in from the north and west toward Gettysburg, Meade was 
rapidly concentrating his army southeast of that town. On 
the 30th a division of Federal cavalry occupied Gettysburg 
and on the morning of July 1 Reynolds arrived with the 
First Corps and led one of his divisions about a mile west 
of the town on the Chambersburg road to support the cavalry 
outposts. Here they encountered Heth's ch vision of Hill's 
corps advancing from the west, and a battle ensued on the 
banks of Willoughby Run in which the gallant Reynolds was 
Idlled and the Federal forces were driven back through 
Gettysburg. 

Hancock, who arrived at an opportune moment early in 
the afternoon, brought order out of confusion and rapidly 
Results of concentrated the scattered Union forces along 
the first the brow of Cemetery Hill. When General Lee 

day s g t 1-eached Seminary Ridge he ordered Ewell's corps 
forward to capture Cemetery Hill, warning him, however, 
not to bring on a general engagement until the arrival of 
Longstreet's corps. A false report that a Federal force was 
threatening Ewell's left caused him to postpone the attack 
until it was too late to do anything that night. Thus 
ended the first day's fight at Gettysburg. So far, the 
Confederates had the better of the fighting. 

That night the Federal position was reenforced and 
strengthened. General Lee decided, however, to renew the 
The second attack. His plan was for Longstreet to attack 
^^y the Federal left and Hill to make a demonstration 

against the center, while Ew^U's corps carried Gulp's Hill, 
occupied by the Federal right. Longstreet delayed his 
attack, which was to have been made early in the day, until 
4 P.M. He had opposed Lee's plan, as he considered the 



High Tide of the Confederacy 



387 



Federal position too strong to be carried. He had advised 
Lee to maneuver Meade out of his position by a movement 
around his left. There was no excuse, however, for his 
lack of cooperation after his plan had been overruled. 

The Federal position was a strong one. The Hnes ex- 
tended in the form of a fishhook from Gulp's Hill t^o Round 
Top, except that on the left Sickles's corps occupied an ad- 
vanced position, with an angle extending out to the Emmits- 
burg road. When Longstreet did 
get into action he was a good 
fighter, and Sickles's position was 
carried by Hood's division of 
Longstreet's corps, but the Con- 
federates failed in the attempt to 
seize Round Top. Ewell's assault 
on Gulp's Hill, which was delayed 
until Longstreet's attack, was not 
successful, though several Federal 
positions were carried. The Con- 
federates, on the whole, had the 
advantage of the day's fighting. 
Furthermore, Stuart's Gavalry 
and Pickett's division had arrived 

on the scene of action. General Lee therefore decided to 
continue the fight next day. 

The Federal generals were less confident, but after a 
council of war, Meade decided to stand his ground and fight 
it out. Lee now decided to assault the Federal The third 
center, although Round Top had been reenforced ^^y 
by the fifth and sixth Union corps. At the same time Ewell 
was to attack the Federal right. A part of his force had 
taken a position in the rear of the Federal line at Gulp's 
Hill and at dawn on July 3 the Federals attacked and over- 
whelmed it. By 11 A.M. the struggle for Gulp's Hill was at 
an end and Ewell's attack thwarted. Longstreet displayed 




General Pickett. 



388 The Civil War 

the same reluctance that he had shown on the preceding day. 
Pickett's division was selected to charge the Federal center 
and it was to be reenforced by men from Hill's corps. 

By 9 A.M. Pickett was ready for the advance. It was 
1 P.M., however, before the order was given. After a terrific 
Pickett's artillery duel, which lasted for an hour, the 
charge infantry column was started on its fateful 

charge. Pickett's men had nearly a mile to cover. As 
they advanced down the slope they received the full fire of 
the Union batteries. Then for a brief period they were 
partially sheltered by the ravine. Then, as they advanced 
up the face of the ridge, they were again met by a withering 
fire. Thousands fell ; the fine faltered, but Pickett's division 
pushed on in the lead. The crest of the hill was won and the 
Federal fine forced back, but there was no support at hand 
and nothing to do but to retreat. 

Of 4900 men in Pickett's own division over 3000 were 
killed or taken prisoners. Of fifteen regimental commanders, 
ten were killed, and five wounded. Of the three brigadiers, 
Garnett and Armistead were killed, and Kemper was 
wounded. Pettigrew's division suffered nearly as severely 
as Pickett's. Meade's army attempted no counterstroke, 
but remained securely in its position. On the following 
day, July 4, General Lee slowly began his retreat into Mary- 
land. The Federal loss at Gettysburg was 23,000 and the 
Confederate a little over 20,000. 

On the day that Lee began his retreat from Gettysburg, 
Pemberton surrendered Vicksburg to Grant. The fall of 
MiUtary Vicksburg was as great a blow to the fortunes of 
operations in the Confederacy in the West as Gettysburg was 
the West -^ ^^^ g^g^ ^^^g^ ^^^ f^jl ^f ^^^ Orleans in 

the spring of 1862, Vicksburg and Chattanooga were the 
two most important strategic positions in the West, and 
for their possession a fierce and stubborn contest was 
waged. Chattanooga was an important railroad junction 



High Tide of the Confederacy 389 

and the door to East Tennessee. As that part of Tennessee 
which hes between the Cumberland and Great Smoky 
Mountains was strongly Union in sentiment, Lincoln was 
anxious to drive the Confederates out and organize a govern- 
ment among those who favored the Union. The task of 
capturing Chattanooga and occupying East Tennessee was 
assigned to Buell and the army of the Ohio. But before 
Buell had fairly started on his campaign he was thrown 
on the defensive by the aggressive movements of the Con- 
federate Generals Braxton Bragg and Kirby Smith. 

Late in August, 1862, Kirby Smith marched from Knox- 
ville across the Cumberland Mountains into Kentucky, 
defeated a Union force which opposed him, and confederate 
occupied Lexington, the center of the famous invasion of 
blue-grass region. From this position he ^"^""^ ^ 
threatened both Louisville and Cincinnati, and caused wide- 
spread alarm. Meanwhile, Bragg, who had succeeded 
Beauregard in the West, had crossed the Tennessee River 
at Chattanooga and was advancing northward through 
Middle Tennessee, while Buell concentrated his forces at 
Murfreesboro, and then started for his base on the Ohio at 
Louisville. The two armies were thus advancing along 
parallel lines and it became a race for Louisville. Bragg 
got the lead and could probably have entered Louisville, 
but he was afraid to do so with Buell close on his heels, so 
he turned eastward to be in touch with Kirby Smith, and 
Buell got into Louisville late in September. 

Bragg and Smith met with the same conditions in Ken- 
tucky that Lee encountered about the same time in Mary- 
land. There were a great many Confederate Battle of 
sympathizers, but no general uprising. Buell PerryvUie 
soon advanced from Louisville with 58,000 men, and for 
several days he and Bragg were maneuvering for position. 
On October 8 occurred the battle of Perryville, largely 
accidental in origin, as neither commander intended to bring 



390 The Civil War 

on a general engagement. The Confederates engaged in 
this battle numbered 17,000, while Biiell made use of only 
about half his force. The Federal left wing was turned by 
Hardee, who inflicted heavy losses and captured 15 guns. 
The Confederates, however, were not strong enough to 
push their advantage, and retreated during the night to 
Harrodsburg and later into Tennessee. Though not a 
decisive battle, Perryville ranks among the major engage- 
ments of the war on account of the severity of the losses. 

On October 30 Buell was relieved of command and Rose- 
crans placed at the head of what was henceforth known as 
B ttieof ^^^ Army of the Cumberland. While Rosecrans 
Murfrees- was rebuilding the railroads and strengthening his 
^°^° communications between Louisville and Nash- 

ville, preparatory to an advance on Chattanooga, Bragg 
concentrated his forces at Murfreesboro. In a desperate 
three days' fight, December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863, 
both sides lost heavily ; but Bragg finally withdrew toward 
Chattanooga. Rosecrans, however, remained for the next 
six months on the defensive, holding Kentucky and the 
greater part of Tennessee. 

The campaign of 1863 opened in the West with the com- 
bined attack of the Federal army and navy on Vicksburg. 
TheVicks- '^^^ most difficult problem which Grant had to 
burg face was to find solid ground near the city on 

campaign ^^\i[ch to encamp his army. In December Sher- 
man had attempted to gain a foothold on the bluffs north of 
the city, but had been repulsed with heavy loss. At the 
same time Grant's attempt to reach Jackson from Corinth 
was thwarted by the Confederates, who cut the railroad 
communications in his rear. During February and March, 
while most of his troops were at Milliken's Bend, several 
unsuccessful attempts were again made to occupy the bluffs 
north of the city. At the same time Sherman's corps was 
engaged in the attempt to dig a canal across the peninsula 



High Tide of the Confederacy 



391 



opposite Vicksbiirg so that transports and supply ships could 
pass without coming within range of the guns, and the troops 
be landed on the east bank of the river below the city ; but 
the Confederates stationed batteries so as to command the 
southern outlet of the canal and the project was abandoned. 

Grant finally decided to carry out a plan which, though 
hazardous in the extreme, he had been considering for some 
time. It was for Porter's 
fleet to run past the bat- 
teries with the supplies, 
while Grant was to lead 
his troops by land to New 
Carthage and then take 
them across the river to 
Grand Gulf, about thirty 
miles south of Vicksl^urg. 
Having successfully exe- 
cuted this movement by 
the end of April, with 
some damage to the fleet. 
Grant decided to aban- 
don his base at Grand 
Gulf, to get in the rear 
of Vicksburg and cut it 
off from Jackson, and to 
establish a new base north of the city at Yazoo. On the 
first of May he defeated a part of Pemberton's army at Port 
Gibson and advanced rapidly toward Jackson. 

On May 13 Joseph E. Johnston, who had been appointed 
commander of all the Confederate forces in the West, arrived 
at Jackson on his way to form a junction with Pemberton, 
but he came too late, and on the following day after slight 
resistance abandoned the state capital to Grant. The latter 
then turned on Pemberton and two days later defeated him 
in a fierce fight at Champion's Hill. Pemberton was driven 




392 The Civil War . 

back into Vicksburg and Grant's troops advanced north and 
occupied Chickasaw Bluffs. 

On the 19th and again on the 22d Sherman's troops tried 
to carry the Confederate trenches by assault, but they were 
Sieeeand repulsed with heavy loss and Grant decided to 
fall of settle down to regular siege operations. Pem- 

Vicksburg berton, who was thus shut up in Vicksburg with 
over 30,000 men, had been ordered by Johnston on the 17th 
to abandon the place, but he interpreted the orders as 
discretionary and decided to stand his ground. Johnston 
did not care to assume the responsibility of withdrawing 
troops from Bragg, who was holding Rosecrans in check at 
Chattanooga, so Pemberton was left to his fate. After 
having been subjected to an almost continuous bombard- 
ment from cannon and mortars, and after the garrison and 
population had been reduced to the point of starvation, 
Pemberton surrendered Vicksburg July 4, 1863, the day after 
the defeat of Lee at Gettysburg. In the movement against 
Vicksburg Grant displayed greater strategic ability than in 
any other campaign in his career. 

In September Grant and Sherman marched eastward to 
the relief of Rosecrans, who was besieged by Bragg in Chatta- 
nooga. After the battle of Murfreesboro Rose- 
around crans had remained inactive in middle Tennessee 
Chatta- fQj. several months. Late in June, 1863, he at 
last began a forward movement, and within ten 
days, by means of his greatly superior force, he maneuvered 
Bragg out of strong positions and forced him to retire across 
the Tennessee River. Next to Richmond, Chattanooga was 
now the most important position in the Confederacy. It 
was protected on the north by the Tennessee River, and on 
the south by high ridges of the Appalachian Mountains, 
guarding the passes into Georgia. Ennouraged by his bril- 
liant success, Rosecrans determined not only to capture 
Chattanooga, but to destroy Bragg 's army. Burnside had 



High Tide of the Confederacy 393 

been ordered to advance with the Army of the Ohio from 
Lexington, Kentucky, against Knoxville, Tennessee, and it 
was not deemed advisable for Rosecrans to advance against 
Chattanooga until Burnside's movement was well under 
way. It was the middle of August before these concerted 
movements began. 

Early in September Rosecrans succeeded by clever 
strategy in getting his army across the Tennessee River, 
whereupon Bragg, to avoid being shut up in Battle of 
Chattanooga, withdrew his army to Lafayette, Chicka- 
a point about twenty-five miles south of the city. ™^"2* 
Thinking that the Confederates were in full retreat, Rose- 
crans hurried his troops forward in pursuit through widely 
separated mountain gaps, when Bragg suddenly turned on 
him at Chickamauga Creek. The concentration of the 
Federal army was effected only with great difficulty and at 
great hazard, and had Bragg pushed his attack more 
vigorously his victory would have been overwhelming. He 
was waiting, however, for the arrival of Longstreet's corps 
from the Army of Northern Virginia, which had to make 
the long railroad journey through the Carolinas and Georgia. 
The arrival of these reinforcements made the numerical 
strength of the two armies about equal. 

With the arrival of a part of Longstreet's corps on Sep- 
tember 19 Bragg began the attack. The Confederates 
fought with great spirit next day, and would have com- 
pletely routed the Federal army but for the splendid conduct 
of General George H. Thomas. As it was, Rosecrans's right 
wing was swept from the field, and he himseK carried along 
with the fleeing rabble all the way to Chattanooga, where he 
sent a telegram to Washington, saying that his army was 
"overwhelmed" by the enemy. Thomas, however, with 
25,000 men held his position on Horse-Shoe Ridge against 
repeated assaults until after dark, when he retreated to 
Chattanooga. 



39-t The Civil War 

After the fight Bragg laid siege to Chattanooga, hoping 
to starve Rosecrans out, and the latter was soon reduced 
Battle of f o extremities. Chickamauga was a terrible shock 
Chattanooga ^q the cabinet at Washington, and at a midnight 
session it was decided to detach the Eleventh and Twelfth 
corps under Hooker from Meade's army in Virginia and send 
them west by the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. The forces 
of Sherman and Grant were already on the way. On October 
16, 1863, Grant was placed in command of the department 
of the Mississippi, which comprised the Armies of the Cum- 
berland and of the Tennessee. Sherman succeeded him 
in command of the Army of the Tennessee, while Rosecrans 
was removed and Thomas placed in command of the Army 
of the Cumberland. 

Grant reached Chattanooga October 23. By the middle of 
November he was ready to begin operations against Bragg. 
On the 24th Hooker seized the top of Lookout Mountain 
in the "Battle above the Clouds." On the 25th Thomas's 
troops stormed and carried Missionary Ridge, and Bragg 
retreated south into Georgia. The Federal army numbered 
about 60,000 and its losses were 6000. While Bragg had 
33,000 troops, his actual losses in killed and wounded were 
less than the Federal, but he lost forty guns and 6000 
prisoners. This was the only battle in the war in which 
all four of the greatest Federal generals were engaged, Grant, 
Sherman, Thomas, and Sheridan. Sherman was immediately 
sent to Knoxville, where Burnside was besieged by Long- 
street. As he approached, the latter was forced to retire. 
Chattanooga and Knoxville were securely held by the 
Federals until the end of the war. 

TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. The Antietam Campaign: Wood and Edmonds, Civil War in 
the United States, Chap. XI ; Allan, Arrmj of Northern Virginia, 
pp. 322-444 ; Ropes, Story of the Civil War, Vol. II, pp. 323-379 ; 



I 



High Tide of the Confederacy 395 

Long, Memoirs of Robert E. Lee, Chap. XII ; Henderson, Stonewall 
Jackson, Vol. II, Chaps. XVIII, XIX; Rhodes, Hislortj of United 
States, Vol. IV, pp. 1.39-155 ; Hosmer, Appeal to Arms, Chap. XIII. 

2. The First Emancipation Proclamation : Messages and Papers 
of the Presidents, Vol. VI, pp. 96-98; Nicolay and Hay, Abraham 
Lincoln, Vol. VI, Chap. VIII; Gideon Welles, Diary, Vol. I, 
Chap. Ill ; Jefferson Davis, Rise and Fall of Confederate Government, 
Vol. II, Chaps. XXV, XXVI; Rhodes, Vol. IV, pp. 157-172; 
Hosmer, Chap. XIV. 

3. Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville : Wood and Edmonds, 
Chaps. XII, XV; Allan, pp. 4.59-519; Ropes, Vol. II, Chap. VI; 
Long, Chaps. XIII, XIV; Henderson, Stonewcdl Jackson, Vol. II, 
Chaps. XX-XXV ; Rhodes, Vol. IV, pp. 192-202, 256-266 ; Hos- 
mer, Chaps. XVI, XVII. 

4. The Gettysburg Campaign : Wood and Edmonds, Chap. XVI ; 
Long, Chap. XV ; Rhodes, Vol. IV, pp. 268-297 ; Hosmer, Chap. 
XIX ; C. Battine, Crisis of the Confederacy, Chaps. V-IX. 

5. Review of Operations in the West, 1 862-1 863 : Wood and 
Edmonds, Chap. XIV; Ropes, Vol. II, Chaps. IV, V; Hosmer, 
Chap. XV. 

6. The Fall of Vicksburg : Wood and Edmonds, Chap. XVII ; 
U. S. Grant, Personal Memoirs, Vol. I, Chaps. XXX-XXXVIII ; 
Rhodes, Vol. IV, pp. 299-319; Hosmer, Chap. XVIII. 

7. The Fight for Chattanooga : Wood and Edmonds, Chap. 
XVIII; Grant, Personal Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 31-88; Rhodes, 
Vol. IV, pp. 395-407 ; Hosmer, Outcome of Civil War, Chaps. II, III. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE BLOCKADE AND FOREIGN RELATIONS 

Historians of the Civil War have described mihtary 
operations in great detail, but they have paid little attention 
^^ ^, , to the blockade and to the attitude of foreign 

The block- .^^ . , ° 

adeand governments. During the first two years of the 

foreign ^^r the Southerners had decidedly the advantage 

relations . , ^ o 

m the field and scarcely anybody in the Con- 
federacy and very few foreign observers believed that the 
North would ever succeed in conquering the South. The 
outcome was in fact the result of the naval supremacy of 
the North and the failure of foreign governments to inter- 
vene. 

In 1860 the Southern States produced about seven eighths 
of the world's supply of cotton, and the mills of England and 
Faith in the France, with their thousands of hands, were 
supremacy dependent upon the cotton crop of the South. 

In view of these facts, it is not surprising that 
the Southern people believed that Cotton was King and that 
any attempt on the part of the North to keep it from the 
markets of Europe would result in the speedy intervention 
of England and France and the recognition of the Confeder- 
acy. It was this belief, held with an infatuation from which 
the actual failure of foreign negotiations alone could release 
them, that caused the Southerners to enter upon the war 
without any naval preparation and without taking into con- 
sideration the . possibilities of the blockade, which was in 
the end destined to be the determining factor in the contest. 

396 



The Blockade and Foreign Relations 397 



fci' 



On April 19, 1861, President Lincoln, acting, he said, 
"in pursuance of the laws of the United States and of the 
Law of Nations," proclaimed a blockade of the Blockade 
Confederate ports from South Carolina to Texas, and beUiger- 
and eight days later extended it so as to include ®°^^ 
the coasts of North Carolina and Virginia. On May 13 the 
Queen of England issued a declaration of neutrality, which 
was followed by similar declarations from France and other 
maritime powers. This action did not commit the powers 
to a recognition of the independence of the Confederacy, nor 
to the reception of diplomatic agents. It merely extended 
to the Confederates the rights of belligerents, that is, it 
entitled their flag to recognition on the high seas, and their 
ships of war and commerce to the same privileges in neutral 
ports as were accorded the ships of the North. The action 
of England was deeply resented in the United States and was 
made the subject of reiterated complaint. It was considered 
an unfriendly act, and the first step toward ultimate recogni- 
tion of Confederate independence. 

Before the outbreak of hostilities the Confederate govern- 
ment had taken steps to gain admission into the family of 
nations. In March, 1861, Robert Toombs, secre- The Con- 
tary of state, sent abroad a commission headed federacy 
by W. L. Yancey with instructions to go to Lon- nitlonofin-" 
don and thence to the other European capitals dependence 
to press the claims of their country to full recognition 
as an independent power. On May 3 the commissioners 
were granted a private interview by Lord Russell, the British 
foreign secretary, but they received little encouragement. 
It was at once clear that his policy was to delay recognition 
and to await the outcome of the struggle. 

At Paris they found the attitude of the Emperor Louis 
Napoleon more favorable, and they were informed that recog- 
nition was a mere matter of time, but that England and France 
had agreed to pursue the same course and to act together. 



398 The Civil War 

In a dispatch to Toombs, the commissioners expressed con- 
fidence that neither England nor France was averse to the 
disintegration of the United States, but they feared that 
public opinion against the Confederacy on the slavery ques- 
tion would embarrass the governments in deahng with the 
question of recognition. On August 29, 1861, President 
Davis appointed James M. -Mason of Virginia as special 
commissioner to England and John Slidell of Louisiana as 
special commissioner to France. 

Mason and Shdell ran the blockade at Charleston October 
12 and proceeded to Havana, whence they sailed November 

7 on the English mail steamer Trent, for South- 
siideU taken ampton. On the following day when passing 
from aboard through the Bahama Channel, the Trent was 

overhauled by the United States man-of-war San 
Jacinto, commanded by Captain Wilkes, and the Confederate 
commissioners, together with their secretaries, were forcibly 
removed and taken to Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. The 
act of Captain Wilkes met with almost universal approval 
at the North. He was officially commended by the secretary 
of the navy, feted at Boston and New York, and given a 
vote of thanks by the House of Representatives. Neither 
Seward nor Lincoln appeared to realize at the time that the 
seizure of Mason and Slidell was not sanctioned by the law 
of nations. 

On December 20 Lord Lyons, the British minister at 
Washington, made a formal demand on Mr. Seward for the 

surrender of Mason and Slidell. The United 
Britain States was given seven days to make a reply. If, 

demands ^t the end of that time the British demand was 

not complied with. Lord Lyons was instructed 
to close the legation and leave Washington. At the same 
time England made extensive naval preparations and sent 
8000 troops to Canada. The British note was couched in 
polite and conciliatory terms, and Lord Lyons communi- 



The Blockade and Foreign Relations 399 

cated it to Secretary Seward in a most friendly and tact- 
ful way. 

On December 26 Seward replied that Mason and Slidell 
would be surrendered on the ground that the case was not 
clearly covered by existing international law, though he argued 
at length that they might be considered either as contraband 
or as the embodiment of dispatches. The Confederates were 
greatly disappointed at the outcome, as they had hoped 
that the controversy would lead to a rupture between Eng- 
land and the United States. 

Mason and Slidell were transferred to a British man-of- 
war in January, 1862, and reached London in Februar}^, 
where they were granted an unofficial interview Attitude of 
by Lord Russell, the British foreign secretary. England 
In giving a report of this interview, Mr. Mason said : "On 
the whole, it was manifest enough that his personal sym- 
pathies were not with us, and his policy inaction." In a 
communication addressed to Lord Russell, Mr. Mason dis- 
cussed at length the blockade and inclosed a list of vessels 
entering and clearing from Cuban ports engaged in commerce 
with the Confederate States. He argued from these facts 
that the blockade was not effective, and was therefore a 
violation of the Declaration of Paris, and that consequently 
England and France were under no obligation to observe it. 

As a matter of fact, the United States foimd it impossible 
at the outset to blockade the entire coast of the Confederacy, 
and it was more than a year before the blockade was anything 
like effective. Thus England and France had sufficient 
grounds for ignoring it, but they did not wish to get into 
a war with the United States, and refrained from taking 
advantage of the situation. 

The French emperor when approached on the subject 
agreed that the blockade was not effective and said that he 
would long since have taken the necessary steps to put an 
end to it, but that he could not obtain the consent of the 



400 The Civil War 

British ministry and that he was unwilling to act alone. He 
declared that he was prepared to send a formidable fleet to 
Attitude of the mouth of the Mississippi if England would 
France send an equal force ; that they would demand free 

ingress and egress for their merchant vessels with their cargoes 
of goods and supplies of cotton which were essential to the 
world. In July, 1862, Mason and Slidell addressed formal 
notes to the British and French governments asking for 
recognition of Confederate independence. Lord Russell 
replied that in view of the capture of New Orleans and the 
advance of the Federal forces up the Mississippi, her 
Majesty's government were still determined to wait. The 
French government again declined to act without England. 

Pope's defeat at Bull Run August 30, 1862, and Lee's ad- 
vance into Maryland soon drew the attention of the British 
ministry again to the subject of recognition, and led 
to a very interesting correspondence between the 
prime minister, Lord Palmerston, and Lord Russell. On Sep- 
tember 14 the prime minister wrote that the Federals "got 
a very complete smashing," and if Washington or Baltimore 
should fall into the hands of the Confederates, he asked 
whether England and France should not "address the con- 
tending parties and recommend an arrangement upon the 
basis of separation." Russell replied: "I agree with you 
that the time has come for offering mediation to the United 
States government with a view to the recognition of the 
independence of the Confederates. I agree further, that, in 
case of failure, we ought ourselves to recognize the Southern 
States as an independent State." Palmerston decided to 
await the outcome of the Antietam campaign, but that still 
left matters in doubt and caused further delay. 

On October 7 Gladstone, who was chancellor of the 
Exchequer, made a speech at Newcastle which attracted 
wide attention. In it he said: "There is no doubt that 
Jefferson Davis and other leaders of the. South have made 



The Blockade and Foreign Relations 401 

an army; they are making, it appears, a navy; and they 
have made what is more than either — they have made a na- 
tion. . . . We may anticipate with certainty the Gladstone's 
success of the Southern States so far as their sep- indiscreet 
aration from the North is concerned." Coming ^^^^"^ 
from a prominent member of the cabinet, the natural con- 
clusion drawn from this speech was that the British ministry 
had decided to recognize the Confederacy. As a matter 
of fact a cabinet meeting had been called for the special 
purpose of considering that question, but Gladstone's speech, 
which was unauthorized, raised such strong protests from 
members of the cabinet and others influential in public life, 
that when the cabinet convened no action was taken. 

The Emperor Napoleon now proposed to England and 
Russia that they unite with him in an offer of mediation, 
but both governments declined. Two months . 
later, after the crushing defeat of the Federal Napoleon 

army at Fredericksburg, the French emperor °^®f.s 

... , , . mediation 

made an offer of mediation through his representa- 
tive at Washington, but the offer was politely declined by 
Seward. The battle of Antietam was the turning point 
in the diplomatic history of the Civil War. Had General 
Lee been able to maintain himself in Maryland for a few 
weeks, it seems almost certain that the South would have been 
recognized by England and France, and recognition would 
have meant intervention and the raising of the blockade. 

For some time President Lincoln had been considering with 
his cabinet the question of issuing a proclamation of emanci- 
pation and turning the war into a crusade against ^^ 

c /^ 1 T » Theproc- 

slavery. Taking advantage of General Lee s lamation of 
repulse at Antietam, Lincoln issued the prelimi- J:™*^"^*' 
nary proclamation September 22, 1862. This 
announcement produced very little impression in England 
and called forth a good deal of ridicule from the friends of the 
South, who characterized it as a bid for the sympathy of the 



402 The Civil War 

laljoring classes abroad, but the final measure of January 1, 
1863, convinced the world that the North was committed 
to the cause of abolition. 

The workingmen of England, who had suffered untold 
hardships from the blockade and who in the early stages of 
the war had felt very little sympathy with the North, were 
now stirred to the depths and thronged the meetings that 
were everywhere held for the purpose of endorsing the new 
policy of Lincoln. These demonstrations strengthened the 
hands of the members of Parliament and the cabinet who 
opposed the recognition of the South, During the Gettys- 
burg campaign, the question of recognition was debated 
at length in the House of Commons, but on July 13, 1863, 
the mover of the resolution, being convinced that a majority 
of the House were against it, withdrew it from further 
consideration. A few days later came the news of the fall 
of Vicksburg and the defeat of Lee at Gettysburg. There 
was henceforth little chance of foreign intervention. 

In 1862 England allowed the Alabama, a cruiser built 
for the Confederate government near Liverpool, to leave 
The case of her waters. Charles Francis Adams, the Ameri- 
the Alabama ^an minister at London, produced overwhelming 
evidence to show that this ship was destined for the Confeder- 
ate service, but the British government neglected to take 
any steps toward detaining it until it was too late. The 
Alabama and other cruisers constructed or purchased in 
England destroyed vessels and cargoes to the value of many 
millions and almost drove the commerce of the United States 
from the seas. 

The Alabama was a new type of commerce destroyer. The 
plans of her commander, Captain Raphael Semmes, were 
thoroughly sj^stematized. He would cruise along one track 
of commerce for about two months and then, when his 
movements were attracting attention, he would cruise in a 
different field. He thus managed to elude pursuers. His 



The Blockade and Foreign Relations 403 

ship was propelled by steam, and also fully provided with 
sails. Most of his captures were made under sail, as he 
had difficulty in getting coal. He always managed, however, 
to keep on hand a sufficient supplj^ to use his engines when in 
danger of capture. As he could not take his prizes into port, 
most of them were destroyed after the removal of passengers 
and crew. He was scrupulously careful of life in these 
transfers and not a soul was lost. When he could not pro- 
vide for the safety of those aboard he let the ship go. 

At the close of the war the United States demanded of 
England reparation for the damage inflicted on American 
commerce by the Alabama and other Confederate cruisers. 
England denied at first all liability in the matter, but finally 
agreed to submit the question to arbitration and had to 
pay heavy damages. 

In the fall of 1863 Mr. Adams called Lord Russell's atten- 
tion to two ironclads on the docks at Birkenhead, which 
were being built under a disguise for the Con- „ 

, , . » , , , T^ . . , Futile efforts 

lederacy. Alter some delay the Bntish govern- oftheCon- 
ment ordered their detention. These were f ormi- federates to 

. secure iron- 

dable vessels, and Captam Bulloch, who con- dads in 
tracted for their construction, was convinced England 
that they could break the blockade at Charleston 
and Wilmington. In 1863 Napoleon authorized the building 
of a Confederate navy in France, provided the destination 
of the ships could be kept secret. A number of ships were 
actually in process of - construction, but after Gettysburg 
the emperor became frightened and in the fall of 1863 with- 
drew his sanction of the scheme. Only one of the vessels, 
the Stonewall, was ever delivered to the Confederates. 

Until the last year of the war blockade running was carried 
on quite actively. Boats were specially constructed for 
this purpose, and a favorite port of rendezvous for the block- 
ade runners was the British port of Nassau in the Bahamas. 
Goods could be shipped from England to Nassau and there 



404 The Civil War 

be transferred to blockade runners, which at night would slip 

through the Federal squadrons into Charleston, Wilmington, 

or some port in Florida. A great many block- 

„,^!.;^„!„^ ade runners also went out from Havana. At 

running and 

indirect car- first the United States government hesitated to 
"(mtraband ^eize a neutral ship bound for a neutral port 
and there seemed no way to break up this 
trade, but finally the Federal navy seized an English ship 
bound for Nassau with a cargo destined for the Confederacy. 
She was taken to New York and the case was tried in the 
United States District Court, which condemned both ship 
and cargo. On appeal to the Supreme Court of the United 
States, the ship was released, but the cargo was condemned 
on the ground that its ultimate destination was the Con- 
federacy. 

This decision was based on an application or an extension 
of the doctrine of continuous voyage, which had originally 
been laid down by the English admiralty courts. The 
Supreme Court held that it was the destination of the goods 
rather than of the ship which determined their liability to 
capture. About the same time another ship bound for 
Matamoros, Mexico, opposite Brownsville, Texas, was seized 
and the cargo, which contained contraband articles destined 
for the Confederates, was also confiscated on the same 
grounds. These decisions rendered shipment of goods to 
the Confederates much more difficult. The doctrine thus 
developed by the United States was further extended by 
England in the Boer War, and in the great European War 
which began in 1914 it became an issue of vital importance. 

In order to appreciate the disastrous consequences of the 
blockade, it should be remembered that the South was an 
Economic agricultural community. Its wealth was derived 
effects of the from the cultivation of cotton, rice, tobacco, and 
°*^ ^ ® other staple crops. Its vast mineral resources 
were not only undeveloped but largely undiscovered. 



The Blockade and Foreign Relations 405 



&' 



Agriculture was the main occupation of the people and for 
manufactured articles of almost every kind, including arms 
and ammunition, they were dependent upon the outside 
world. At first the blockade was not effective and supplies 
were obtained in Europe, but during the second year of the 
war the export of cotton was almost completely cut off and 
the importation of European suppUes fell off proportionately. 
The Confederacy was thus thrown back on its own resources. 
Stupendous efforts were made to manufacture the necessary 
supplies for the army, but- at great expense and with only 
limited success. The only hope lay in foreign intervention, 
but England and France managed to get on without American 
cotton and suffered the blockade to continue. 

Next to the recognition of Confederate independence, 
the most serious danger that threatened the Union from 
without during the Civil War was the occup ation Foreign jq. 
of Mexico by French troops, and the establish- tervention 
ment of an empire under Maximilian of Austria. "^^^^'^^ 
In 1861 England, France, and Spain landed troops in Mexico 
for the purpose of collecting claims held by their subjects 
against the government of that country. The three powers 
had agreed to act together, but before their troops had been 
long on Mexican soil Great Britain and Spain became con- 
vinced that the Emperor Napoleon had ulterior designs, 
and they withdrew their contingents. 

The French troops then took possession of a large part 
of Mexico, and under their auspices a convention was 
called, which decided to establish an empire and Maximilian 
to invite Prince Maximilian of Austria to accept of Austria 
the crown. Relying on the support of France, pran'feon 
Maximilian finally accepted and sailed for Mexico, the throne 
The French invasion and overthrow of the °^M«^"=° 
Mexican Government were in direct violation of the Monroe 
Doctrine, but the United States had its hands tied and could 
do nothing but protest. 



406 The Civil War 

Napoleon's Mexican venture undoubtedly furnishes the 
secret of his friendly feehng for the Confederacy. The 
success of his scheme was deliberately calculated on the over- 
throw of the American Union. The Confederates quickly 
caught at the suggestion of an alUance between Mexico and 
the South with the power of France to back it, but Napoleon 
was afraid of the American navy, and did not care to go the 
whole length of recognizing the Confederacy as an independent 
power without the cooperation of England. His designs 
on Mexico, however, made England very cautious about 
entering into any agreement with him. At each successive 
step taken by the French to estabhsh their power in Mexico 
Secretary Seward protested, and after the close of the war 
his protests assumed the form of a practical ultimatum and 
Louis Napoleon finally withdrew his troops. 

In December, 1864, Judah P. Benjamin, the Confederate 
secretary of state, informed President Davis that there 
Last effort ^^^ ^^ remaining hope of securing foreign aid 
to secure unless the Confederacy was willing to abandon 
foreign aid gi^very, and he urged that a commissioner be 
sent abroad with full powers to negotiate treaties on the 
basis of emancipation and government seizure of cotton 
with which to pay for arms and munitions. Davis finally 
consented to the plan and selected for the dehcate mission 
Duncan F. Kenner, of Louisiana, one of the largest slave- 
holders in the South and chairman of the ways and means 
committee of the Confederate Congress. In case the move 
proved successful, Davis hoped to persuade the Congress 
to ratify the treaties and carry out their stipulations. After 
vainly trying to get out through the blockade at Wilmington, 
Kenner went to New York in disguise and through the aid 
of a friendly hotel proprietor secured passage for Europe. 
When he reached London and Paris Sherman's army was 
already in the CaroUnas and Lee was making his last stand 
before Petersburg. The British and French governments 



The Blockade and Foreign Relations 407 

received the proposal but gave it scant consideration. A 
few days later came the news of Lee's surrender at Appomat- 
tox. 

TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. Recognition of Belligerency: Rhodes, History of United 
Slates, Vol. Ill, pp. 417-434; Bancroft, W. H. Seward, Vol. II, 
Chap. XXXI ; J. M. Callahan, Diplomatic History of the Southern 
Confederacy, Chap. IV; C. F. Adams, Charles Francis Adams, 
Chap. IX. 

2. The Trent Affair: Rhodes, Vol. Ill, pp. 520-543; Bancroft, 
W. H. Seward, Vol. II, Chap. XXXIII; Adams, Charles Francis 
Adams, Chap. XII ; T. L. Harris, The Trent Affair. 

3. Attitude of England and France: Rhodes, Vol. Ill, pp. 502- 
519; Schouler, Vol. VI, pp. 111-129; Callahan, Chaps. V-IX ; 
Adams, Charles Francis Adams, Chaps. XIII-XVI ; C. F. Adams, 
Trans-Atlantic Historical Solidarity, Chaps. II, III. 

4. The Alabama and Other Confederate Cruisers : Rhodes, 
Vol. IV, pp. 85-95, 365-372, 510-511; Adams, Charles Francis 
Adams, Chap. XVII ; Maclay, History of the Navy, Vol. II, 
Chap. XX ; J. R. Soley, The Blockade and the Cruisers, Chap. VII ; 
Scharf, Confederate States Navy, Chap. XXVI ; Raphael Semmes, 
Service Afloat; J. D. Bulloch, Secret Service of Confederate States 
in Europe. 

5. The Blockade of the Confederacy : Soley, The Blockade and 
the Cruisers, Chaps. II-VI ; Scharf, Chap. XVI ; Maclay, Vol. II, 
Chap. XXIII; Bancroft, W. H. Seward, Vol. II, pp. 374-382; 
C. F. Adams, Studies Military and Diplomatic, Chap. VII. 

6. French intervention in Mexico : Rhodes, Vol. IV, pp. 345, 
471, Vol. VI, pp. 205-211; Bancroft, W. H. Seward, Vol. II, 
Chap. XL ; J. B. Moore, Digest of International Law, Vol. VI, 
pp. 483-506. 



CHAPTER XXIV 
THE OUTCOME OF THE WAR 

While the South, as a result of the blockade, was being 

thrown back on its own resources and was slowly dying of 

exhaustion and inanition, the North was growing 

mentof prosperous. Instead of being adversely affected 

Northern j^y ^j^g -yyar, Northern commerce and manufac- 

rcsourcGS 

tures were greatly stimulated. This result was 
due in part to the fact that the North had already made 
considerable industrial progress, in part to the wise legis- 
lation of Congress, and in part to the advantages derived 
from foreign commerce, for, although the Confederate 
cruisers forced Northern commerce to seek shelter under 
foreign flags, the great volume of trade with other countries 
was not interrupted. 

In 1862 Congress chartered the Union Pacific Railway 
and provided for its construction by enormous grants of 
Railroad and Public lands ; it passed the homestead bill wliich 
land made it possible for actual settlers on the public 

egis a ion domain to acquire lands at nominal fees ; and it 
provided for the establishment by the States of colleges of 
agriculture and the mechanic arts to be supported in part 
out of the proceeds of the sales of public lands. Few Con- 
gresses have passed acts of such far-reaching importance. 
These and similar measures were designed to strengthen 
the resources of the country and of the government. 

The customs receipts were greatly increased by a high 
protective tariff, though the primary object of the tariff 
was to stimulate domestic industries, while internal revenue 
receipts were enormously increased by taxes on manufactures, 

408 



The Outcome of the War 409 

on the gross receipts of railroad, steamboat, and express 
companies, on various articles of luxury, and on incomes. 
A stamp tax was laid on bank checks, receipted jj^ggting t^e 
bills, and on various classes of legal and commer- cost of the 
cial documents. It was impossible, however, to ^^"^ 
raise enough money to meet the enormous cost of the war, 
which soon reached $1,000,000 a day and finally exceeded 
$3,000,000. Bonds bearing interest at a specified rate and 
redeemable at a specified time were issued in large amounts. 

Nevertheless finances were seriously deranged, gold 
became very scarce, and Congress found it necessary to 
authorize the issue of paper money to the amount currency 
of $500,000,000, which it undertook to force into legislation 
circulation by making it full leg^l tender. Notwithstanding 
this latter precaution the notes rapidly depreciated to about 
half the value of gold, and specie payments had to be suspended. 
It was fifteen years after the close of the war before the 
government was in a condition to redeem these notes in gold. 

In 1863 the national banking system, proposed by Secre- 
tary Chase, was estabhshed. It not only helped to provide 
a sound currency secured by the deposit of United States 
bonds, but it created a permanent demand for these bonds. 
It took several years, however, to extend the new banking 
system throughout the country and to get it into full oper- 
ation, so that it did not afford immediate financial relief ; 
but during the years following the war it was of great as- 
sistance in providing a more stable currency and in helping 
the government to return to specie payments. 

The Civil War imposed a terrific strain on constitutional 
government both North and South. Between the fall of 
Fort Sumter in April, 1861, and the convening ^ . 

,^ -TiU., T- , 1 Strain on 

of Congress m July, President Lmcoln assumed constitu- 
a temporary miUtary dictatorship. He pro- tionaigov- 
claimed a blockade of the coasts of the Confed- 
eracy, thus assuming the constitutional right of Congress 



410 The Civil War 

to declare war ; he called for 42,000 volunteers to serve 
for three years, and added 22,000 men to the regular army 
and 18,000 to the navy, without constitutional warrant ; 
furthermore, he authorized General Scott to suspend the 
writ of habeas corpus at any. point on the railroad line be- 
tween Philadelphia and Washington, and when the Supreme 
Court gave its opinion that this power was given by the 
Constitution to Congress and ordered the release of prisoners, 
he directed the military authorities to ignore the order of 
the Court. 

An act of Congress of August 6 validated all acts, proc- 
lamations, and orders of the president relating to military 
Congress affairs issued since the 4th of March preceding, 
backs the The president continued the practice of suspend- 
presi ent ^.^^ ^j^^ ^^^ ^£ habeas corpus, and the number 

of arbitrary arrests and imprisonments of inhabitants of 
Northern States accused of disloyalty grew to large propor- 
tions and caused a decided reaction of popular feeling. The 
election of 1862 shook the power of the Republican party, 
and Congress finally placed the suspension of the writ on 
a legal basis, providing for a judicial examination within 
twenty days after each arrest and the discharge of the pris- 
oner on the failure of the grand jury to indict. 

In the South, too, the writ of habeas corpus was sus- 
pended, but by act of Congress and under more restrictions 
Conditions than at the North. The powers of government 
in the South were, however, overtaxed from the first and the 
executive was given free rein. Civil affairs were soon 
overshadowed by military, and the Confederate Congress 
sank into comparative insignificance. Little attention was 
paid to its debates and few men of ability who were 
fit for service in the field cared to serve in it. The burden 
of carrying on the war fell more heavily on the States 
than at the North. Both Congress and State legislatures 
issued bonds and paper currency in large amounts, and 



I 



The Outcome of the War 411 

this paper rapidly depreciated in value until it became 
almost worthless. 

Conscription was resorted to by the Confederate Congress 
early in the war. By act of April, 1862, all males between 
the ages of eighteen and thirty-five were drafted Military 
into the army. In September of the same year conscription 
the age Umit was raised to forty-five, and before the end of 
the war boys of sixteen were included. 

In March, 1863, the Congress of the United States passed 
a Draft Act, providing for conscription by lot. Any drafted 
person could be exempted from service by hiring a substitute 
or by paying $300. The law was very badly administered 
and it was charged that it was made to fall very heavily 
upon Democrats. It caused great excitement and dis- 
satisfaction, particularly in some of the eastern cities, and 
during the "draft riots" in New York, July 13-16, 1863, the 
week after Gettysburg, a large part of the city was at the 
mercy of a mob, which burned and plundered houses and 
lynched a number of negroes. Several regiments had to 
be called from the army to disperse the rioters. 

After Gettysburg and Vicksburg the South was thrown 
on the defensive. General Lee conducted his army in good 
order across the Potomac and tendered his res- The South 
ignation, which President Davis declined. Lee on the 
and Meade spent the remainder of the summer ^ ensive 
and fall maneuvering between the Rapidan and the Rappa- 
hannock, but no engagements of importance took place. 
Lee's strength was reduced by sending Longstreet with two 
divisions to the assistance of Bragg in Tennessee, and Meade 
thought, apparently, that he was doing enough in protecting 
Washington. Finally the two armies went into winter 
quarters on opposite sides of the Rapidan, Lee's headquarters 
being at Orange Court House, and Meade's near Culpeper. 

On March 9, 1864, General Grant received his commission 
as lieutenant general at the hands of President , Lincoln 



412 



The Civil War 



Grant ap- 
pointed 
lieutenant 
general 



in Washington. He remained in the capital no longer 
than was absolutely necessary, but hurried to the front 
to take personal command of the army, which 
was encamped on the north bank of the Rapidan. 
This army numbered 99,000 men and 274 guns. 
North of the Rappahannock was Burnside's corps 
of 19,000 men and 42 guns. Meade offered his resigna- 
tion, but Grant desired him to continue at the head of 

the Army of the Potomac. Grant 
now decided to march on Rich- 
mond by turning Lee's right 
flank. As Lee's army numbered 
only 60,000 men and 224 guns, he 
would be compelled to fall back. 
Although Grant's movements 
would take him through the 
"Wilderness," as the flat, thickly 
wooded country southwest of 
Fredericksburg was called, he 
chose this line of advance in order 
to keep in touch with his base of 
supplies on the navigable rivers. 
Grant's great flanking move- 
ment began May 2, and on the 
5th and 6th was fought the battle of the Wilderness. The 
Battle of the Confederates gained ground on their left and 
Wilderness qj^ h^q right they forced Hancock back into his 
intrenchments, but in the attempt to carry the intrench- 
ments they were repulsed with heavy loss. 

On May 7 Grant began another movement by the left 
flank, and from the 8th to the 18th there was almost con- 
tinuous fighting near Spottsylvania Court House. 
Grant sacrificed men by the thousands, but 
again failed to break Lee's line. On the night 
of the 20th he began withdrawing his troops from Lee's 




Robert E. Lee. His last 
photograph, taken in 1869. 



Spottsyl- 
vania and 
Cold Harbor 



The Outcome of the War 413 

front and began another flanking movement of a more ex- 
tended character, which finally resulted in the battle of 
Cold Harbor, June 3. Here Grant undertook to carry Lee's 
entire line by assault, but was repulsed with terrible slaughter, 
exceeding anything ever known in warfare before. He had 
been baffled at every point and he now withdrew his army 
across the James, and began his movement to enter Rich- 
mond from the direction of Petersburg. In the forty days 
movement from the Rapidan to the James, he lost 65,000 
men, more than Lee had in his entire army at the beginning 
of the campaign. Lee's losses were only a third as great, 
but he could ill afford them even at such a terrific cost to 
his opponent. 

Grant now undertook to carry out the same plan which 
McClellan had proposed two years earlier. Why did not 
Grant, like McClellan, take his army to the jncompe- 
James by water? He had expected in his ad- tenceof 
vance on Richmond the cooperation of General ^^" 
B. F. Butler, who was in command of the Army of the James, 
but Butler was utterly incompetent and failed to advance 
at the right time in accordance with his instructions. Had 
he advanced on Petersburg before Beauregard's arrival 
from North Carolina, Grant's terrible sacrifice at Cold 
Harbor would have been spared. On May 16 Beauregard 
repulsed Butler at Drewry's Bluff. Butler's incompetency 
was nothing short of criminal, and Grant asked for his re- 
moval, but Halleck, who was still the president's chief 
military adviser, was afraid to call for Butler's resignation 
on account of "his talent at political intrigue, and his facili- 
ties for newspaper abuse." 

In July, 1864, General Jubal A. Early made a sudden 
march into Maryland and his army succeeded Early and 
in reaching the Outskirts of Washington. The Sheridan in 
city was thrown into a state of consternation, ® ^^ 
but the authorities soon saw that it was a mere raid, and 



414 



The Civil War 



it failed to produce the designed effect on Grant's operations. 
Sheridan was sent to the Valley to hold Early in check, but 
on October 19 his army was surprised at Cedar Creek during 
his absence and almost routed. He arrived on the field in 
time to turn defeat into victory. His cavalry then raided 
the Valley of Virginia, destrojdng crops and provisions, and 
driving all the live stock 
before them with the ob- 
ject of so devastating 
that region that it would 
be impossible for a Con- 
federate army to march 
through it. 

Henceforth operations 
in Virginia were confined 

largely to the 

region around 

Richmond. 

General Lee 

not only had 
to defend the Confeder- 
ate capital, but he had 
also to hold Petersburg 
in order to keep up com- 
munications with the 

south. He strongly intrenched his army in a long line, 
extending east of Richmond and Petersburg, while Grant 
settled down with dehberation for a protracted siege. Here 
the two armies spent the winter of 1864-1865. Grant's 
army with its base on the James was kept well supplied with 
provisions and equipment, while Lee's army was growing 
thin and emaciated from slow starvation. 

When Grant was called East, Sherman was left in command 
in the West, with instructions to advance against Atlanta, 
while Joseph E. Johnston succeeded Bragg and undertook 



Trench 
fighting 
before 
Richmond 
and Peters- 
burg 




General Philip H. Sheridan. 



The Outcome of the War 415 

the difficult task of holding Sherman in check. The latter 
began his advance from Chattanooga early in May, 1864, 
with 99,000 men. Johnston was at this time The fight for 
intrenched at Dalton in northern Georgia with Atlanta 
an army numbering about 53,000. Sherman turned John- 
ston's position, and the latter had to fall back. As the 
Federal army continued to advance, Johnston fell back along 
the hue of the railway from Chattanooga to Atlanta, eon- 
testing every inch of ground and tearing up the tracks and 
destroying the bridges as he proceeded, but Sherman's en- 
gineers repaired the bridges and tracks almost as rapidly 
as his army advanced. 

As Sherman's army greatly outnumbered the Confederate, 
he proceeded by a series of flanking movements. Johnston 
fell back from one intrenched position to another, but as 
the Federal commander had enough troops to outflank him, 
he had to continue faUing back. Finally Johnston took 
up a strongly fortified position at Kenesaw ]\Iountain, twenty- 
five miles from Atlanta. This position was assaulted by 
Sherman, but he was repulsed with heav}^ loss. Sherman 
then made another flank movement and the Confederates 
fell back on Atlanta. Johnston's policy had caused great 
dissatisfaction at the South, and on July 17 he was replaced 
by General John B. Hood. 

As Hood was expected to fight, he did not long delay 
engaging the enemy, and during the latter part of July a 
series of fights occurred around Atlanta in which Fall of 
the losses on both sides were heavy. Hood Atlanta 
managed to hold Sherman's greatly superior force in check 
for over a month, but on September 2, 1864, he finally 
evacuated Atlanta, and the next day Sherman's troops 
entered. The capture of Atlanta caused great rejoicing 
at the North, for it was the first important military success 
of the year. In August Farragut had won the battle of 
Mobile Bay, destroying the Confederate fleet and reducing 



416 



The Civil War 



the fort. The last Confederate port on the Gulf was thus 
closed. 

After the fall of Atlanta, Hood began a series of attacks 
on Sherman's communications which drew the latter north 
Sherman's ^^ pursuit. Hood withdrew westward into 
march to the northern Alabama. When Sherman became con- 
^^^ vinced that his adversary was not willing to risk 

a general engagement, he sent Thomas north to hold Ten- 
nessee, while he returned to Atlanta. In a speech at Macon 

about this time Jefferson 
Davis compared Sher- 
man's position to that of 
Napoleon in Russia, and 
predicted that when he 
began his retreat his army 
would be harassed and 
destroyed. But Sherman 
had no intention of re- 
treating. On the con- 
trary, he was planning a 
movement which took 
the Confederates com- 
pletely by surprise, and 
which caused the author- 
ities at Washington great 
anxiety. He proposed to 
cut loose from his base, 
abandon his line of com- 
rnunications, and march 
through the fertile fields 
of Georgia, the very heart of the Confederacy, to the sea. 
It was with great difficulty that he persuaded Lincoln and 
Grant to consent to his plan. 

"I propose," Sherman wrote to Thomas, "to demonstrate 
the vulnerability of the South and make its inhabitants feel 




General William T. Sherman. 



The Outcome of the War 417 

that war and individual ruin are synonymous terms." About 
the middle of November he started from Atlanta on his 
march to Savannah with an army of 62,000 finely Sherman's 
equipped soldiers. His last message to Grant ruthless 
was: "I will not attempt to send couriers back, ^° '^^ 
but trust to the Richmond papers to keep you well ad- 
vised." Meanwhile Hood had invaded Tennessee with the 
confident expectation that he would draw Sherman after 
him. The opposing armies were thus marching in op- 
posite directions, and Sherman's march was unimpeded, 
Hardee's infantry and Wheeler's cavalry, the only Con- 
federate forces encountered, not being strong enough to 
seriously harass him. 

True to his intentions, Sherman systematically devastated 
the country through which he passed. Writing from 
Savannah he says: "We have consumed the corn and 
fodder in the region of country thirty miles on either side 
of a line from Atlanta to Savannah as also the sweet pota- 
toes, cattle, hogs, sheep, and poultry, and have carried away 
more than 10,000 horses and mules as well as a countless 
number of their slaves. I estimate the damage done to the 
State of Georgia and its military resources at $100,000,000 ; 
at least $20,000,000 of which has inured to our advantage 
and the remainder is simple waste and destruction." 

Sherman's success had an important effect on the presi- 
dential campaign then in progress. At the outbreak of 

hostilities the great maiority of Democrats at 

n.T , 1 1 1 • • . • 1 The presi- 

the North supported the admmistration, and dentiai 

many of the War Democrats, as they were called, campaign 
became merged in the Republican party. Those 
who opposed Lincoln's measures were denounced as "South- 
ern Sympathizers," and the more extreme ones were dubbed 
"Copperheads." The suspension of the writ of habeas 
corpus and the large number of arbitrary arrests drove 
many sincere Union men into the opposition, and in the 



418 The Civil War 

elections of 1862 the Republicans met with many reverses, 
even losing the great State of New York. 

As the time for holding the nominating conventions drew 
near there was considerable doubt as to whether Lincoln 
could be reelected, and his friends and supporters decided 
to appeal to all Union men irrespective of party to support 
him. Lincoln made no effort to conceal his candidacj^ and 
happilj"" summed up the situation by saying that it was 
dangerous "to swap horses while crossing a stream." In 
the call for a convention the term Republican was carefully 
avoided and the assembly which met in Baltimore on June 
7 and nominated Lincoln for a second term was known 
officiall}^ as the National Union Convention. Having 
placed a Republican at the head of the ticket, the convention 
chose a Union Democrat, Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, 
as its candidate for vice-president. A week earlier a con- 
vention of radical Republicans in session at Cleveland, 
Ohio, had nominated John C. Fremont for the presidency. 

The Democrats met in convention in Chicago in August 
and nominated as their candidate General George B. McClel- 
McCleilan ^^^ ^^ ^ platform which declared the war to have 
opposes been "four years of failure" and urged the cessa- 
inco n ^-^^^ ^£ hostilities and a restoration of the Union 

through a convention of the States or other peaceable means. 
In accepting the nomination General McClellan denied 
that the war had been a failure and declared that there 
could be no peace until "our present adversaries are ready 
for peace on the basis of the Union." The capture of 
Mobile by Farragut in August and of Atlanta in Sep- 
tember by Sherman showed conclusively that the war had 
not been a failure and left no doubt as to the outcome 
of the presidential campaign. Fremont withdrew and 
Lincoln carried every state that participated in the elec- 
tion with the exception of Delaware, New Jersey, and 
Kentucky. 



The Outcome of the War 419 

When Hood entered Tennessee from northern Alabama, 
he was opposed by General Schofield, who had instructions 
from Thomas to hold the Confederates in check 
until the Federal army could be concentrated at portant 
Nashville. As Schofield was outnumbered, he operations in 

the West 

had to retire before Hood, who overtook him and 
forced a fight at Franklin on November 30. The Federal 
force held its position until after nightfall, when it withdrew 
across the river and united with Thomas at Nashville. 
The Confederates claimed the victory, but their losses were 
out of all proportion to those of the Federals. 

Hood with 26,000 men now settled down before Nashville 
and intrenched himself and waited for Thomas to take the 
initiative. Although the latter had 48,000 men, he delayed 
making an attack until Grant grew very impatient and 
threatened to remove him. Finally, after completing all 
the preparations prompted by his cautious nature, he began 
the attack December 15, and on the following day completely 
shattered Hood's army. The Chattanooga- Atlanta cam- 
paign with its*sequels, the march to the sea and Thomas's 
defeat of Hood, was the most decisive of the war. It cut 
the Confederacy in twain. 

From Savannah Sherman set out February 1, 1865, and 
on the 17th his army entered Columbia, the capital of South 
Carolina. The greater part of this city was de- 
stroyed by fire. On the 18th a detachment of march] 

Sherman's army occupied Charleston, and on through the 

., Carolinas 

the 21st another detachment captured Wilmmg- 

ton, North Carolina. The feeling in the Northern army 

against South Carolina was especially bitter, and the course 

of the army through that State was marked by burning 

houses and the general destruction of property. Sherman's 

army reached Goldsboro, North Carolina, March 23, 1865. 

Meanwhile Joseph E. Johnston had been placed in command 

of the remnant of Hood's armj^, and with what other troops 



420 The Civil War 

he could collect he undertook to check Sherman's advance. 
Lee's army was the only other Confederate force of any size 
left in the field, and that was now making its last stand in 
Virginia. 

Sherman's rapid advance through South Carolina and 
North Carolina, in February, 1865, had the effect of arousing 

Grant to action. Had Sherman continued his 
render of advance to Richmond he would have got all the 
Lee at credit for ending the war. Finally, on April 2, 

Petersburg fell, and Lee had to abandon Rich- 
mond, which the Federal troops entered on the 3d. Lee 




Valentine's Recumbent Statue over the Tomb of Lee, in the 
chapel of Washington and Lee University at Lexington, Virginia. 

had hoped to unite with Johnston's army in North Carolina, 
but the movement in this direction was checked by Sheri- 
dan's cavalry at Five Forks. On the 9th Lee and Grant 
held a conference at Appomattox and Lee surrendered all 
the forces under his command. Lee was never greater than 
in defeat. He might have withdrawn his army to the moun- 
tains of southwest Virginia, as many of the Southern leaders 



The Outcome of the War 421 

advised, and have prolonged the war indefinitely, but he 
realized that this would mean the introduction of a guerrilla 
warfare, which would result in the plunder and devastation 
of the South. As soon as it was evident that his army could 
no longer meet the enemy in the open field, he assumed the 
responsibility of ending the war at once and surrendered. 
Grant was as great in victory as Lee was in defeat. He 
released both men and officers on parole and permitted them 
to keep their horses, "because they would need them for 
the spring plowing and farm work." 

On April 26 General Johnston surrendered his army to 
Sherman near Durham, North Carolina, and the few remain- 
ing Confederate forces soon disbanded or sur- 
rendered. Early in May Jefferson Davis was impnson- 

captured in Georgia and sent to Fortress Monroe, mentof 

. Davis 

where he was kept in close confinement for two 

years under indictment for treason. He was then released 

on bail, but the case was never brought to trial. 

In the midst of the rejoicing at the North that followed 
Lee's surrender occurred the tragedy of Lincoln's assassina- 
tion. On the evening of April 14, five days after Lincoln's 
Appomattox, the president was shot in Ford's **®**^ 
Theater in Washington by John Wilkes Booth, an actor 
whose mind seems to have been unbalanced. The South 
had nothing to gain by such an act, and coming as it did at 
this particular time, nothing could have been a greater 
calamity. 

The armies of the United States and of the Confederacy 
were both made up of citizen soldiers, and probably no armies 
in the history of warfare ever displayed greater 
forbearance and self-restraint in dealing with 
non-combatants, or more chivalry in their relations with 
each other. The most marked exceptions to this were 
Butler's conduct at New Orleans, Sherman's march through 
Georgia and the Carolinas, and the raids of Hunter 



422 The Civil War 

and Sheridan in the Valley of Virginia. As regards the 
treatment of prisoners, each side has charged the other with 
cruelty and neglect. The Southern military prisons have 
been pictured as pens of filth, disease, and starvation. As a 
matter of fact, a careful study of the mortality statistics 
shows that there was little difference in the treatment of 
prisoners North and South. When we consider the fact 
that the North refused to exchange prisoners, and thus 
forced the Confederates to keep in confinement more men 
than they could properly take care of, and when we con- 
sider the further fact that the Northern soldiers were well 
supplied with provisions, while the Southerners during the 
latter part of the war were always on short rations, there is, 
as James Ford Rhodes says, no reason why the North should 
reproach the South. 



TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. Conditions at the North: Wilson, Division and Reunion, 
pp. 219-221, 227-233; Rhodes, Vol. V, Chap. XXVII ; Cambridge 
Modern History, Vol. VII, Chap. XVIII ; A. B. Hart, Salmon P. 
Chase, Chaps. IX, XI. 

2. Conditions at the South : Wilson, Division and Reunion, 
Chap. X; Rhodes, Vol. V, Chap. XXVIII; Cambridge Modern 
History, Vol. VII, Chap. XIX ; Curry, Civil History of Confederate 
States, Chap. V ; G. C. Eggleston, Rebel's Recollections, Chaps. 
II-IV ; J. C. Schwab, Confederate States of America. 

3. Grant in Command : Rhodes, Vol. IV, pp. 433-439 ; Hosmer, 
Outcome of Civil War, Chap. V ; Grant, Personal Memoirs, pp. 107- 
145 ; Battine, Crisis of the Confederacy, pp. 345-360. 

4. The Wilderness Campaign: Rhodes, Vol. IV, pp. 440-447; 
Hosmer, Chap. VI ; Battine, Chap. XI ; Wood and Edmonds, 
Civil War in the United States, Chap. XX ; Long, Memoirs of Robert 
E. Lee, Chaps. XVI, XVII; E. P. Alexander, Military Memoirs 
of a Confederate, Chap. XX. 

5. Early and Sheridan in the Valley : Rhodes, Vol. IV, pp. 496- 
505, 526-536 ; Wood and Edmonds, Chap. XXIV : Long, Memoirs 
of Robert E. Lee, Chap. XVIII. 



^ 



The Outcome of the War 423 

6. Sherman's March to the Sea : Rhodes, Vol. V, pp. 1-44, 85- 
108; Wood and Edmonds, Chaps. XXII, XXIII ; Jefferson Davis, 
Rise and Fall of Confederate Government, Vol. II, Chaps. XLVIII, 
LI; W. T. Sherman, Personal Memoirs, Vol. II, Chaps. XVI- 
XXIII. 

7. The Presidential Campaign of 1864: Rhodes, Vol. IV, pp. 518- 
539 ; Hosmer, Chap. IX ; Stanwood, History of the Presidency, 
Chap. XXII ; J. T. Morse, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II, Chaps. IX, 
X ; A. B. Hart, Salmon P. Chase, Chap. XII. 

8. The Surrender of Lee at Appomattox : Rhodes, Vol. V, pp. 
112-131; Long, Memoirs of Robert E. Lee, Chaps. XXI, XXII; 
Grant, Personal Memoirs, Chap. LXVII ; C. F. Adams, Lee at 
Appomattox, Chap. I ; G. Bradford, Lee the American, Chap. VII. 



CHAPTER XXV 
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTHERN STATES 

With the gradual collapse of the Confederacy there arose 
the question as to the status of the States which had seceded 
Lincoln's ^^^ were now occupied by Federal troops. How 
plan of re- were their governments to be reconstructed and 
construction ^^^^-^ ^^^ ^q |-,g ^Yie status of their inhabitants, 
black and white ? President Lincoln's plan of reconstruction 
was outlined in his Proclamation of December 8, 1863. It 
authorized the reestablishment of State governments in the 
South whenever voters qualified under the suffrage pro- 
visions of 1860, to the number of one tenth of those who 
voted in the presidential election of that year, should take 
the oath of allegiance to the United States and agree to 
abide by the acts of Congress and the proclamations of the 
president concerning slavery. Arkansas had been reor- 
ganized on this principle prior to the proclamation, and 
Louisiana and Tennessee were reorganized in the same way 
by President Lincoln after the proclamation. Andrew John- 
son, as military governor of Tennessee, carried out the work 
in that State. These States were reorganized on the basis 
of white suffrage. Lincoln had no intention of conferring 
the franchise on the negro as a class, though he did hope to 
see it conferred by the States on a few of the more intelligent. 

Johnson's policy was substantially the same as Lincoln's. 

He still stuck to the ten per cent basis. He was not as 

liberal as Lincoln in his proclamation of amnesty. 

Johnson s 

policy op- He confined the suffrage to white men, and like 

posed by the Lincoln, while he favored a qualified suffrage for 

negroes, he regarded that as a matter for the 

States to settle. It should be remembered that at this 

424 



Reconstruction of the Southern States 425 

time all the Northern States but six denied the negro the 
ballot. 

Johnson was criticized for not convening Congress in extra 
session, but there is no record that any member of the cabinet 
advised such a step. In April Sumner hoped that it would 
not be done. He thought then that Johnson would confer 
the suffrage on the negro by executive decree. When he 
found that he could not persuade the president to take this 
step, Sumner changed his opinion about Congress. In 
August he wrote : " Refer the whole question of reconstruc- 
tion to Congress, where it belongs. What right has the 
president to reorganize States?" Other radical Repubhcan 
leaders now began to take issue with the president. Thad- 
deus Stevens wrote to Sumner: "Is there no way to arrest 
the insane course of the president in reorganization?" 

Still the work of reconstruction went on and The Nation 
said that the president's policy had "the miraculous prop- 
erty of appearing to satisfy all parts and parties 
of the country," and called it another "era of em states 
good feeUng." The Southern States held con- comply with 

. . • 1 1 conditions 

stitutional conventions m accordance with the imposed by 

president's instructions, declared the ordinances *^® 

president 
of secession null and void, repudiated the war 

debt, and ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, aboUshing 
slavery. These were the conditions of reconstruction im- 
posed by the president. 

By the opening of Congress, December 4, 1865, the work 
had been practically completed, and representatives and 
senators from most of the Southern States were present 
with their credentials. On December. 8, 1865, the secretary 
of state issued his proclamation declaring that the Thirteenth 
Amendment was in force, having been ratified by twenty- 
seven of the thirty-six States. Among the ratifjdng States 
he named eight that had seceded. 

The radicals in Congress, however, had no intention of 



426 . The Civil War 

readmitting the Southern States on the terms offered by the 

president. A peeuUar feature of the situation was that as 

a result of the aboUtion of slavery the repre- 

C/On£fr6SS 

takes a sentation of the Southern States in Congress would 

hand in re- }jp greatly increased. Prior to the war only three 
fifths of the slaves were counted as population 
in apportioning representatives ; now that slavery was 
abolished the entire negro population would be counted. 
If white men continued in control in the South there was 
little chance that the Republican party could long continue 
in control of the national government. In the minds of the 
radical leaders the only hope lay in undoing what Lincoln 
and Johnson had done and in reorganizing the South on the 
basis of negro suffrage. 

The first step was to refuse to seat the representatives 
and senators from the Southern- States. In this matter 
the president could not interfere. In making up the pre- 
liminary list of the House, therefore, the clerk was instructed 
by the RepubUcan caucus to omit the names of representa- 
tives from the Southern States, and Thaddeus Stevens 
offered a resolution that a joint committee of nine from the 
House and six from the Senate be appointed to inquire into 
the condition of the former Confederate States and report 
"whether they or any of them are entitled to be represented 
in either House of Congress." This resolution was adopted 
by a large majority without waiting to hear the president's 
message, and a week later it passed the Senate. 

The president's message, which was read December 5, 
was an able state paper written in admirable tone probably 
Conditions by George Bancroft, the historian. It reviewed 
in the South ^t length the course of the administration ^vith 
reference to the Southern States. On December 18 the 
president announced in a special message to Congress that 
the "RebeUion" had been suppressed; that in all the in- 
surrectionary States, except Florida and Texas, the people 



Reconstruction of the Southern States 427 

had reorganized their governments, and that in those two 
States satisfactory progress was being made. He also sub- 
mitted to Congress reports from General Grant and Carl 
Schurz on conditions in the South. Grant declared, as a 
result of his observations on an extended tour, that there 
was no further thought of resistance in the minds of the 
Southern people, that they had accepted the results of the 
war and were anxious to resume as speedily as possible their 
accustomed occupations. 

Schurz's report, likewise based on extended personal 
observations, set forth very different views. He said that 
the people of the Southern States had not accepted in good 
faith the results of the war, that they had no sense of loyalty 
to the government of the United States, and that they were 
not yet ready to be restored to the control of public affairs. 
Unfortunately indiscreet measures adopted by the reorganized 
Southern legislatures between October, 1865, and March, 
1866, gave color to Schurz's views. These measures were the 
so-called "Black Codes," intended to define the legal status 
of the freedmen, to regulate conditions of labor, and to check 
the disorder and vagrancy which were already making such 
alarming progress among the negro population suddenly 
freed from white control and unaccustomed to the exercise 
of self-restraint. These laws were not very different from 
those in force in Jamaica and other places where there was 
a large negro population, but the North did not understand 
the necessities of the situation and considered them an out- 
rageous infringement of personal liberty. 

On February 19 Johnson vetoed the Freedmen's Bureau 
bill, which enlarged the powers of the Bureau established by 
act of March 3, 1865, for the purpose of protect- The breach 
ing and aiding the newly liberated slaves. The between the 

, . , . , , , , president 

necessary two thirds to pass it could not be ob- and 
tained in the Senate, so the bill failed. On Congress 
February 22 the president, who was suddenly called upon 



428 The Civil War 

to address a large gathering that had collected at the 
White House, made a very unfortunate speech, in which 
he severely criticized the radical members of Congress. 
This speech made a bad impression on the country, and it 
tended to widen the breach between the president and the 
radical leaders. 

Along with the Freedmen's Bureau bill, Trumbull had 
reported from the judiciary committee the Civil Rights bill. 
This bill, its authors claimed, simply made effective the pro- 
visions of the Thirteenth Amendment, but there was con- 
siderable doubt of its constitutionality. It passed the Sen- 
ate February 2, 1866, by a vote of 33 to 12, and after con- 
siderable discussion, it finally passed the House March 13, 
by a vote of 111 to 38. Stevens made a violent attack on the 
president in the House, taking as his text the 22d of Feb- 
ruary speech, which he caused to be read for the purpose, ap- 
parently, of goading him into vetoing the bill. 

In a message to the Senate the president stated his objec- 
tions to the bill at length, the main one being that it con- 
ferred citizenship on the negro when eleven of the thirty-six 
States were unrepresented, and attempted to fix by Federal 
law "a perfect equaUty of the white and black races in every 
State of the Union." He considered it unconstitutional 
and an invasion of the rights of the States. The Senate 
passed the Bill over his veto on April 6, by a vote of 33 to 
15. Three days later the House passed it by a vote of 122 
to 41. This was the most important measure that had 
ever been passed by Congress over the veto of a president. 

In view of the doubt as to the constitutionaUty of the 
Civil Rights bill, its main provisions were embodied in the 
The Four- Fourteenth Amendment, which was proposed in 
teenth the House by Stevens. In June Congress decided 

Amendment ^^ submit it to the States, and its ratification by 
the Southern States was made a further condition of their 
readmission. The amendment did not directly impose 



Reconstruction of the Southern States 429 

negro suffrage on the States, but it aimed to accomplish 
that purpose indirectly by the second section, whereby the 
representation of a State in the House was to be cut down 
in proportion to the number of male citizens over twenty- 
one years of age who were deprived of the right to vote. 

The first section, which was of even more far-reaching 
importance, declared: "All persons born or naturaUzed 
in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, 
are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein 
they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which 
shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the 
United States ; nor shall any State deprive any person of 
life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ; nor 
deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protec- 
tion of the laws." The original Constitution undertook to 
protect individuals against the encroachments of the central 
government ; the Fourteenth Amendment undertook to 
protect life, liberty, and property against State interference. 
It had the effect of placing not only individuals, but corpora- 
tions, under the protection of the Federal Courts and involved 
the most radical changes ever made in the American con- 
stitutional system. 

During the congressional campaign in the summer and 
fall of 1866, the president made a tour through the Middle 
West which was popularly referred to as "swing- " Swinging 
ing the circle." On this tour he addressed large the Circle" 
bodies of citizens who were frequently disorderly and ill- 
mannered, and amid frequent interruptions he denounced 
in severe terms the leaders of the radical Republicans. This 
tour lined up most of the RepubUcans against Johnson, and 
the Republican majorities in the election of members of 
Congress were larger than those given to Lincoln two years 
before. In the new Congress there were in the Senate 
forty-two Republicans and eleven Democrats, and in the 
House one hundred and forty-three Republicans and forty- 



430 The Civil War 

nine Democrats, a working majority of considerably over 
two thirds. The RepubHcans could now carry out any 
reconstruction policy which they chose, notwithstanding 
the opposition of the president. 

The radical members of Congress were quick to catch 
the drift of public sentiment. On December 10, Blaine, 
Negro who had not hitherto been regarded as an ex- 

sufifrage tremist, declared in the House that the people 
had now demanded at the polls an additional condition of 
reconstruction ; namely, the bestowal of the suffrage on the 
negro. Meanwhile, Texas in October and Georgia in 
November, 1866, had refused to ratify the Fourteenth 
Amendment. In December the Amendment was rejected 
by Florida, Alabama, North Carolina, and Arkansas, and in 
January, 1867, by South Carolina and Virginia. Alabama 
and Virginia came very near ratifying it, and would probably 
have done so but for the influence of President Johnson. 
• The opinion is expressed by some historians that if the 
Southern States had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, 
the more conservative Republicans would have remained 
in control and been able to carry out the plan already agreed 
on in the case of Tennessee, but the temper of Congress 
after the election of 1866 was distinctly radical. It was 
not the rejection of the Fourteenth Amendment, but the 
big Republican majorities of November, 1866, that decided 
the fate of the Southern States. Early in the session Con- 
gress extended the suffrage in the District of Columbia to the 
negro. This was a forewarning of what was coming. 

The constitutional status of the Southern States was a 
question upon which neither lawyers nor political philoso- 
Thecon- phers had been able to formulate a consistent 
stitutional theory. According to the Southern theory the 
Southern States that had attempted secession were still 
states States, all the essentials of statehood remaining 

unchanged. This was the theory on which Sherman 



Reconstruction of the Southern States 431 

acted when in granting terms of surrender to Johnston 
he had agreed that the existing State governments should 
be recognized. This agreement was repudiated by the 
administration, and the State governments were over- 
thrown by the mihtary commanders. The presidential 
theory, which has ah'eady been set forth, was, in brief, that 
the Southern States had never ceased to be members of the 
Union ; that their governments had temporarily fallen into 
the hands of disloyal persons; and that just as soon as 
loyal governments were reestablished in these States they 
could resume their functions as members of the Union. 

Charles Sumner advanced the theory of State suicide, 
which was that the Confederate States had through treason 
forfeited their rights as States and relapsed into yje^gof 
the status of territories, subject like the other Sumner and 
territories to the exclusive jurisdiction of Con- ®^^"s 
gress. The view advanced by Stevens was even more 
radical. He agreed with Sumner as to the effect upon the 
States of their own disloyal acts, but denied that they pos- 
sessed even the attributes of territories under the Constitu- 
tion. He claimed that they were conquered provinces 
subject to the arbitrary wOl of Congress and he denied to 
their inhabitants even the rights enjoyed under the Con- 
stitution by citizens of the territories. 

Other members of Congress held a view which, while less 
consistent theoretically, was more practical as a working 
basis. It was that the people in each seceding State had 
committed a political crime against the nation and forfeited 
for the time being their political rights ; that the constitu- 
tional clause guaranteeing to each State a repuljlican form 
of government makes Congress, and not the president, the 
final arbiter as to the political status of a State, and that 
therefore Congress should direct the work of reconstruction 
and decide when and on what conditions the States should 
be readmitted. Sumner and Stevens held that the States 



432 



The Civil War 



which had seceded no longer existed. The forfeited rights 
theory held that their territory remained intact, but that 
their political rights were for the time being in abeyance. 

In December, 1866, the Supreme Court handed down 
an important decision in the Milligan case. The Court 

held b}^ a division of five 
to four that neither the 
president nor Congress 
had the power to au- 
thorize the trial of citi- 
zens by a military tri- 
bunal, where the civil 
courts were open and 
in the unobstructed ex- 
ercise of their jurisdic- 
tion. Stevens denounced 
this as almost as in- 
famous as the Dred 
Scott decision. The 
radical leaders of Con- 
gress did not propose 
to be thwarted by the 
Supreme Court, and as 
a threat introduced a 
bill into the House re- 
quiring a unanimous decision of the Court in cases involv- 
ing the constitutionality of an act of Congress. This reso- 
Attitudeof lution was never brought to a vote. Although 
the Supreme Chief Justice Chase had been one of the radical 
antislavery leaders, he now took a conservative 
view of the constitutional relations of the States and the 
Union, and by his decisions tried to prevent any revolu- 
tionary changes from taking place as a result of the Civil 
War. 

On January 3, 1867, Stevens called up a bill which he had 




Thaddeus Stevens. 



Reconstruction of the Southern States 433 

introduced to provide for State governments on the basis 
of negro suffrage and white disfranchisement. After further 
consideration by the Committee on Reconstruc- Radical re- 
tion, the bill was finally reported to the House construction 
on February 6. It set aside the reorganized State govern- 
ments in the late Confederate States, with the exception 
of Tennessee, and divided them into five military districts, 
over each of which the general of the army was to place a 
military commander. The bill passed the House February 
13, by a vote of 109 to 55. Meanwhile, Senator Williams 
of Oregon had introduced the same bill in the Senate. On 
February 17 it passed that body, with an amendment to 
the effect that military governments should terminate when 
the late Confederate States should adopt universal suffrage, 
conferring the vote on the negro. It also provided that the 
military governors should be appointed by the president, 
instead of by the general of the army. It was considered 
beyond the powers of Congress to deprive the president of 
his position as commander-in-chief of the army. As the 
session was drawing to a close, the bill was pushed by the 
radicals in the conference committee and finally agreed upon, 
with an amendment excluding from the suffrage and from 
office those persons who were excluded by the Fourteenth 
Amendment. On March 2 the president vetoed the Bill, 
but on the same day it was passed over his veto. Thus 
two years after the war was over the work of restoration 
carried on by Lincoln and Johnson was undone and the 
South thrown back under miHtary rule. The act of March 
2 was later supplemented by the acts of March 23 and July 19. 
In addition to the Reconstruction Act the same Congress 
passed the Tenure-of-Office Act, likewise over the president's 
veto. This act took away from the president xenure-of- 
the power of removing without the consent of office Act 
the Senate any officeholder confirmed by that body. The 
object of the act was to insure the execution of the rccon- 



434 The Civil War 

struction measures by making the members of the cabinet 
and other civil officeholders independent of the president. 
Stanton, the secretary of war, was in full accord with the radi- 
cal element in Congress and in direct opposition to the presi- 
dent. As the Southern States were now being governed 
through the War Department, the position of secretary of war 
was one of first importance, and the president naturally wanted 
that office filled by some one in whom he had full confidence. 
He finally decided therefore to call for Stanton's resignation, 
and on August 5, 1867, sent him the following note : "Public 
considerations of a high character constrain me to say that 
your resignation as Secretary of War will be accepted." 
Stanton promptly replied: "Public considerations of a 
high character, which alone have induced me to stay at the 
head of this Department, constrain me not to resign the office 
of Secretary of War before the next meeting of Congress." 

The president was now left the alternative of backing 
down from his position, or of removing Stanton from office. 
Suspension Grant advised him not to remove Stanton, but 
of Stanton ]^g ^g^g determined to do so, and in this deter- 
mination he had the backing of several members of his 
cabinet. He realized the necessity of appointing in Stanton's 
place, ad interim, some one in whom the country had the 
fullest confidence, so he prevailed on General Grant to take 
the office. 

On August 12 the president notified Stanton that he was 
suspended, and directed him to transfer the office and rec- 
ords to General Grant. Stanton replied that the president 
had no right to suspend him from office, but that he had "no 
alternative but to submit, under protest, to superior force." 
A few days later General Sheridan was removed from the 
post of commander of the District of Louisiana and Texas 
for insubordination in publicly criticizing the president of 
the United States. About the same time General Sickles 
was removed from the command of the district comprising 



Reconstruction of the Southern States 435 

North and South CaroHna. It was charged by the radicals 
that these removals were made by the president in order 
that he might obstruct the carrying out of the will of Congress 
as embodied in the reconstruction acts. 

So many men were disfranchised or excluded by the iron- 
clad oath required of officeholders and voters that the 

military commanders found some difficulty in 

• • 1 1 I- • • 111 " Carpet- 

obtaming boards of registration, and had to ap- baggers " 

point agents of the Freedmen's Bureau, military ^°^ " scala- 

Wd.CS " 

officers, ex-union soldiers who had settled in the 
South, a^nd a few negroes. ''Ignorance was thus enfran- 
chised and intelligence disfranchised." Northerners who 
came South for the purpose of obtaining office under the 
reconstruction regime became generally known as "carpet- 
baggers," while the meaner sort of. whites who accepted 
office were known as "scalawags." By disfranchising the 
whites and conferring the suffrage on the negro the radical 
leaders hoped to make the South Republican and to insure 
the continuance of their party in power. 

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court was utterly helpless to 
stay the hands of the radicals. It was known that five of 
the nine justices considered the reconstruction suDreme 
acts unconstitutional, and Mississippi and Geor- Court 
gia tried to get the question before the Court by ^^'p^^^s 
enjoining the president, secretary of war, and other officials 
from enforcing the acts, but the Court decided that it had 
no right to restrain the executive branch of the government 
in this way. About the same time Colonel McCardle, a 
Vicksburg editor, who had been arrested and imprisoned by 
General Ord, appealed his case to the Supreme Court, but 
Congress quickly passed a bill depriving the Court of juris- 
diction in such cases, and the Court concluded that it was 
safest to acquiesce. The Supreme Court was thus completely 
subdued, and the only thing standing in the way of the rad- 
ical program was the president. 



436 The Civil War 

For a year the question of impeaching the president had 
been under consideration. On December 12, 1867, he sent 

to the Senate a message giving his reasons for 
fweefthe' suspending Stanton. On January 13, 1868, by 
president a vote of 35 to 6, the Senate refused to concur in 
Grant ^^^'^^ the suspension. The next day General Grant 

surrendered the War Department to Stanton. 
This act caused a complete breach between the president 
and the general commanding the army. The president 
declared that General Grant had given his solemn pledge 
that in case the Senate should refuse to concur in the sus- 
pension of Stanton, he would not surrender the War Depart- 
ment without a conference with him. The president charged 
Grant to his face with bad faith, and Grant was unable to 
givea satisfactory explanation of his conduct. The president 
now determined to ignore altogether the Tenure-of -Office Act. 
On Fel)ruary 21 he issued orders removing Stanton and ap- 
pointing General Lorenzo Thomas secretary of war ad interim. 
Stanton refused to surrender the office and had Thomas arrested. 
On February 24 the House resolved, by a vote of 126 to 
47, to impeach the president, and on the following day a 

committee appeared before the bar of the Senate 
resolves to to formally notify that body of its action. Stan- 
impeach the ton's arrest of Thomas had been made on the 

charge of violating the Tenure-of-Office Act. The 
president and the attorney-general now tried to get this 
case before the Supreme Court, but the Republican leaders, 
knowing the attitude of the Court and that a decision against 
the constitutionality of the act would remove the ground 
for impeachment, advised Stanton to release Thomas, and 
thus prevented the case from coming before the Court. 
Stanton, meanwhile, was barricaded in his office and remained 
there day and night for several weeks with armed men in 
the basement ready to defend him in case the president 
should order Thomas to take forcible possession. 



Reconstruction of the Southern States 437 



The chief article in the impeachment was the charge that 
Johnson had viohited the Tenure-of-Office Act. On March 
5 Chief Justice Chase took the chair in the impgach- 
Senate Chamber, and the formal proceedings ment pro- 
began. The president was represented by an ^^^ '"^^ 
array of able counsel, while the prosecution was conducted 
by Stevens, Butler, Logan, and other members of the House 
who were conspicuous for parti- 
sanship as well as for ability. 
Elaborate arguments were made 
on each side. Finally, on Satur- 
day, May 16, the vote was taken 
on the Eleventh Article, which 
was considered the strongest, as 
it covered the violation of the 
Tenure-of-Office Act. The vote 
stood 35 for conviction and 19 
against. It was evident that the 
impeachment had failed, although 
there was lacking only one vote 
of the necessary two thirds. The 
court then adjourned until May 26. 

The radicals were wild with rage. Seven Republicans 
voted "not guilty," and it was thought by some that the 
vote was a "frame up," that is, that the Senate _ 

,,.,., . , Thepresi- 

wanted to humiliate the president as much as dentac- 

possible, but did not care to assume the responsi- q"i"ed but 

1 -T <• • 1 • mi <> ttr 1 humiliated 

bility 01 removing him. The fact that Wade, the 

president pro tempore of the Senate, who was distrusted by 

some of his colleagues, would succeed to the presidency 

doubtless had some weight in determining the vote. During 

the interval between the adjournment on May 16 and the 

resumption of the impeachment proceedings on the 26th, 

the flepublican National Convention met at Chicago and 

nominated General Grant for the presidency. On the 26th 




Andrew Johnson. 



438 The Civil War 

the vote was taken in the Senate on the other articles of 
impeachment, but remained 35 to 19. The Senate, as a 
court, then adjourned sine die. Stanton immediately 
relinquished his position in the War Department and Gen- 
eral Schofield was appointed and confirmed as secretary of 
war. 

No president of the United States has fared so badly at 
the hands of historians as Andrew Johnson. Only in recent 
Character of Y^^^^ with the publication of the Diary of Gideon 
Andrew Welles and the acquisition of Johnson's papers 
Johnson ^^ ^^iq Library of Congress has the verdict of his 
contemporaries been set aside. Few men have risen to such 
high station from such humble beginnings. Sprung from 
the class of "poor whites" in East Tennessee and a tailor 
by trade, he never had a chance to learn to read and write 
until taught by his wife after their marriage. His strong 
intellect, positive convictions, and ready speech, crude but 
forceful, enabled him to forge his way to the front, but to 
the last his character was marred by marks of the hard con- 
ditions of his youth. At several of the critical moments of his 
public career he gave way to unseemly outbursts of passion 
and once or twice to his fondness for strong drink, though 
his excesses in this matter were greatly exaggerated. He 
was placed on the ticket with Lincoln as a Union Democrat 
and, succeeding to the presidency at a most critical period, 
he had to deal with a Congress which was strongly and radi- 
cally Republican. He was despised by the South because 
he had the poor white's jealousy of the Southern aristocrat 
and wanted to make treason odious by hanging Jefferson 
Davis and other leaders of the Confederacy, and he was 
distrusted by the North because he had the poor white's 
contempt for the negro and wanted to deny him civil and 
political equality. Yet no one who makes an impartial 
study of his career can deny to him the two great virtues of 
patriotism and moral courage. 



Reconstruction of the Southern States 439 

On May 20, 1868, the National Union RepubHcan Con- 
vention met in Chicago. Grant had been a Democrat be- 
fore the war and there had been some doubt as to domination 
his position until his break with President Johnson, and election 
As soon as it became known that he would accept ° '^*°* 
the Republican nomination there was no serious thought of 
any one else. He was nominated with great enthusiasm, 
and Schuyler Colfax of Indiana, speaker of the House, was 
named for vice-president. 

The Democratic Convention met in New York July 4. 
George H. Pendleton's "Ohio idea," which was to redeem the 
bonds in greenbacks instead of coin, was popular in the West, 
and he led on the earlier ballots. General Hancock and 
Senator Hendricks then developed unexpected strength, 
but neither could secure the necessary two-thirds vote. 
Finally after twenty-one ballots had been cast the name of 
Horatio Seymour of New York, who was presiding over the 
convention, was put in nomination and unanimously in- 
dorsed. 

Grant received 214 electoral votes and Seymour 80, but 
three of the Southern States were not allowed to participate 
and six of those which had recently been reconstructed gave 
their votes to Grant. Seymour carried New York, New 
Jersey, and Oregon, and most of the border States, and had 
he carried the solid South he would have been elected. The 
power of the Republican party was thus seriously threatened 
and its leaders became more determined than ever to hold 
the South through the negro vote. 

By June, 1868, all of the Southern States except Virginia, 
Mississippi, and Texas had ratified the Fourteenth Amend- 
ment and been readmitted to representation in ^j^^ 
Congress. It was soon evident that the second Fifteenth 
section of that amendment would not assure the °^^° ™^° 
vote to the negro, for the Southern States would prefer 
to have their representation in Congress reduced rather than 



440 The Civil War 

submit to negro rule. The Fifteenth Amendment was, 
therefore, proposed, declaring that "The right of citizens 
of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged 
by the United States or by any State on account of race, 
color, or previous condition of servitude." The ratification 
of this amendment was made a further condition of read- 
mission in the case of Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas, and 
later in the case of Georgia also, for that State was again 
thrown back under military rule. In 1870 this amendment 
was declared in force and the remaining States were read- 
mitted. 

Public affairs at the South were now dominated by carpet- 
baggers and scalawags through the manipulation of the 
The South negro vote. The agents of the Freedmen's 
under negro Bureau played a leading part in organizing the 
^" ® negroes against their late masters through means 

of the Union League and its secret ritual. The reconstruc- 
tion conventions and legislatures contained numbers of 
negroes and the extravagance of the governments knew no 
bounds. The public debts of several States increased at an 
alarming rate without any corresponding benefit to the 
people. Vast sums were spent in the purchase of mahogany 
desks, costly carpets, and other furnishings for legislative 
halls and the offices of public officials. In the capitol at 
Columbia, South Carolina, the legislature maintained a 
free restaurant where its "black and tan" members could 
satisfy their desires for meat or drink at any hour free of 
charge. 

In order to check outrages and to punish insolent negroes 
or carpet-baggers a secret organization known as the Ku- 
TheKu- Klux Klan was organized in Tennessee in 1867 
KiuxKian ^nd within two years spread over the entire 
South. With masks and white coverings for horse and 
rider its members dashed along the country roads at night 
or through the streets of villages terrorizing the negro and 



Reconstruction of the Southern States 441 

keeping him from attending the secret meetings of the Union 
League. At first the Klan played mainly upon the super- 
stitions of the negro, but it did not hesitate to visit serious 
offenses with prompt punishment even to the point of taking 
life. The rule of this "invisible empire" naturally led to 
excesses and after a congressional investigation in 1871 
an act was passed empowering the president to use the army 
in suppressing the Klan. It had, however, put a damper 
on the political aspirations of the negro and done much to 
reestablish white supremacy in the South. 

When General Grant became president he had had no 
experience whatever in civil administration. He was un- 
fortunate in the selection of advisers and in Grant's first 
his appointees to important offices. In addition administra- 
to this, there were thousands of men who had '°° 
helped to save the Union who were clamoring for public 
office or government patronage. The result was that 
Grant's administration was one of the most corrupt in the 
history of the government. In 1869 James Fisk and Jay 
Gould, two of the most unscrupulous stock speculators in 
Wall Street, planned a deliberate scheme to secure a corner 
in gold, and through indirect influence they succeeded in 
getting Grant to instruct the secretary of the treasury to 
sell no more gold, as he had been doing from time to time 
in order to keep the price from soaring too high. Their 
plan came very near succeeding, and Friday, September 24, 
1869, has ever been known as "Black Friday" in Wall Street. 
The plot was revealed to Grant in time to prevent the com- 
plete success of the scheme, but not until a number of bank- 
ing firms had failed and others had suffered severely. 

As early as 1870 the opposition to Grant within his party 
led to the organization of a Liberal Republican j^^^^^^i 
movement. When it became evident that he Republican 
would be renominated, the Liberal Repubhcans '^^^^^^'^^ 
decided to place a candidate in the field. They held a 



442 



The Civil War 



National Convention at Chicago in May, 1872, and nomi- 
nated Horace Greeley of New York for president, and B. 
Gratz Brown of Missouri for vice-president. Among other 
things, the new party demanded "the immediate and ab- 
solute removal of all disability imposed on account of the 

rebellion which was finally 
subdued seven years ago, 
believing that universal 
amnesty will result in 
complete pacification in 
all sections of the coun- 
try." The Democratic 
Convention met in Bal- 
timore in July and de- 
cided to indorse Greeley, 
and to adopt the platform 
of the liiberal RepubU- 
cans. 

The Republican Con- 
vention had meanwhile 
met in Philadelphia and 
nominated Grant by ac- 
clamation. Some of the 
Democrats who were not 
willing to indorse Greeley 
held a separate conven- 
tion and nominated Charles O'Connor of New York. The 
Labor party and the Prohibitionists also put candidates in the 
Grant field. In the election Grant received 3,597,070 

reelected yotes, Greeley 2,834,079, and O'Connor 29,408 
votes. Greeley had carried only six States, Georgia, Ken- 
tucky, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas. He 
was heartbroken at the result and died a few weeks after 
the election. Grant received 286 electoral votes out of a 
total of 366. There being double returns from Louisiana 




Horace Greeley. 



Reconstruction of the Southern States 443 

and Arkansas, the votes of those States were thrown out 
by Congress. 

Grant's second administration was marred by greater 
corruption and scandal than his first. In order to build 
the Union Pacific Railroad, there had been or- An era of 
ganized a construction company known as the corruption 
Credit Mobilier. The directors of this company undertook 
to defraud the stockholders, and in order to prevent a con- 
gressional investigation they distributed large amounts of 
the stock to members of Congress at about half its market 
value. A great many of the most prominent men in public 
life were implicated to a greater or less degree. 

On March 3, 1873, Congress passed the so-called "Salary 
Grab" Act increasing the salaries of the president, vice- 
president, and Supreme Court justices, as well as raising 
the salaries of members of Congress from S5000 to $7500 a 
year. The worst feature of the act was that it was to be 
retroactive and to date from the beginning of the Congress 
which was just closing. This amounted, of course, to the 
members of Congress voting themselves each a bonus of 
$5000. The act raised a storm of protest and was re- 
pealed by the succeeding Congress. 

In 1875 it was discovered that a group of distillers in St. 
Louis had, through the connivance of the United States 
collector of internal revenue, defrauded the government 
out of millions of dollars. Grant's secretary, Colonel Bab- 
cock, was implicated in the affair, and Grant himself had 
accepted costly gifts from the collector. In 1876 it was 
discovered that Belknap, the secretary of war, had bar- 
gained for the appointment of an Indian agent, and that 
the agent had paid Mrs. Belknap annually the sum of $6000. 
The evidence against Belknap Vas overwhelming and the 
House passed a resolution of impeachment, but a few hours 
before the resolution actually passed Belknap tendered his 
resignation to President Grant, who promptly accepted it. 



444 The Civil War 

The presidential campaign of 1876 was one of the most 
exciting in the history of the country. Blaine was the 
Th Haves- ^G^ding candidate for the Republican nomination, 
Tiiden but the fact that he was implicated in the railroad 

campaign scandals proved fatal to his ambition, and the 
convention, which met in Cincinnati the middle of June, 
1876, finally nominated Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio. The 
Democrats nominated Samuel J. Tiiden, a New York lawyer, 
who had achieved a national reputation by his vigorous 
prosecution of the Tweed Ring. The Greenback party, 
which wanted to continue in circulation the large volume 
of paper currency that had been issued during the war, 
also put a candidate in the field. 

Early in the evening of election day, November 7, it was 
known that Tiiden had carried New York, New Jersey, 
Connecticut, and Indiana, and on the following morning 
nearly every newspaper in the country announced his elec- 
tion, but there were two notable exceptions, the New York 
Herald and the New York Times, which said that the result 
was in doubt. The Times tabulated the vote as follows : 
Tiiden 184, Hayes 181, and the four votes of Florida in doubt, 
but claimed by the Republicans. Later in the day the 
same paper announced that Hayes had 185 votes and Tiiden 
184, and that night the Republican National Committee 
issued a bulletin claiming the election for Hayes by one vote. 
As it turned out finally, Tiiden had 184 undisputed votes 
and Hayes 165, while there were in dispute 7 votes in South 
Carolina, 4 in Florida, 8 in Louisiana, and 1 in Oregon. Hayes 
needed every disputed vote in order to win. 

In Oregon one of the Republican electors, being a post- 
master, was constitutionally ineligible and the governor 
The con- gave a certificate of election to the highest elector 
tested on the Democratic ticket. The secretary of 

returns state, however, issued a certificate to the three 

Republican electors. In Florida, where the vote was very 



Reconstruction of the Southern States 445 

close, the Democratic member of the returning board gave 
the certificates to the Democratic electors, while his two 
colleagues declared the Republican electors chosen. 

In Louisiana and in South Carolina there were two gov- 
ernors and two legislatures, the Republican government in 
each case upheld by Federal bayonets and the Democratic 
government claiming to be the legitimate choice of the 
people. Double returns were therefore forwarded to Wash- 
ington from both States. In Louisiana the Republican 
board of State canvassers went back of the returns and threw 
out several thousand Democratic votes in order to give 
Hayes a majority. James Ford Rhodes says in this connec- 
tion : "As a matter of fact. Wells (the chairman of the board) 
and his satellites in secret conclave determined the presi- 
dency of the United States, but, before returning the vote 
of Louisiana for Hayes, there is little doubt that he offered 
to give it to Tilden for $200,000." 

The question which now arose was who should decide 
which were the valid certificates when Congress was ready 
to count the votes. On this point the Constitu- ^j^^ 
tion is ambiguous. The twenty-second joint electoral 
rule adopted by Congress in 1865 provided that <^°™°"^^'°° 
if either House refused to accept the vote of any State, the 
vote of that State should be thrown out. In 1873 the votes 
of Louisiana and Arkansas had been excluded under this 
rule. In January, 1876, the Senate rescinded this rule, 
but it was not rescinded b}^ the House. The Senate was 
Republican and the House Democratic, hence an agreement 
was impossible. Tilden had a popular majority of 264,000 
and a good chance to win, but he did not manage his case 
well. 

On January 29, 1877, Congress passed an act creating 
an electoral commission which was given full power to de- 
termine the cases in dispute. This commission was composed 
of five senators, three of whom were Republicans and two 



446 



The Civil War 



Hayes 

declared 

elected 



Democrats, five representatives, two of whom were Republi- 
cans and three Democrats, and four members of the Supreme 
Court, two of whom were Repubhcans and two Democrats. 
The four justices were to select a fifth member of the Court 
as the fifteenth member of the commission. 

When the measure was agreed upon^ it was expected that 
Justice Davis, who was 

an independent 

in politics, 

would be se- 
lected, but just before 
the bill was passed Davis 
was elected to the United 
States Senate by the 
legislature of Illinois and 
resigned from the Court. 
Justice Bradley, a Repub- 
lican, was finally put on 
the commission, which 
was thus composed of 
eight Republicans and 
seven Democrats, and in 
every important case that 
came before them the vote 
stood eight to seven. 
All the votes in dispute 
were given to Hayes, and 
he was declared to have been elected president of the United 
States. This result, however, was not reached until March 
2, 1877, two days before the day set for the inauguration of 
the new president. 

The country had been through a serious political crisis, 
and narrowly escaped another civil war. The Democrats, 
however, offered no resistance, and it is now generally 
known that assurances were given to the Democratic leaders 




Rutherford B. Hayes. 



Reconstruction of the Southern States 447 

through some of Hayes's friends that in case they would 

acquiesce in the decision of the commission Hayes would 

immediately withdraw the troops from the South. _ 
... , . 1 • 1 1 -r-. Restoration 

As this was an object which the Democrats had of Home 

long tried to ])ring about, they were satisfied Rule at the 
with the compromise. One of the most un- 
fortunate features of Hayes's conduct was the fact that he 
rewarded Wells, the chairman of the Louisiana Returning 
Board, and his friends by appointing them to good positions 
under the Federal government. The Republican governors 
of Louisiana and South Carolina who had certified the Hayes 
returns were unable to maintain themselves without Federal 
aid and withdrew with the troops, leaving the field to their 
Democratic opponents, who were promptly recognized by 
Hayes. 

TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. Lincoln's Plan of Reconstruction: Proclamation of Decem- 
ber 8, 1863, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Vol. VI, pp. 213- 
215 ; Wilson, Division and Reunion, pp. 254—2,57 ; Rhodes, History 
of the United States, Vol. IV, pp. 484-487, Vol. V, pp. 46-57, 132- 
137; J. T. Morse, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II, Chap. VIII; J. W. 
Burgess, Reconstruction and the Constitution, Chap. II ; W. A. Dun- 
ning, Essays on Civil War and Reconstruction, Chap. II. 

2. Character and Policy of Andrew Johnson : Schouler, History 
of the United States, Vol. VII, pp. 1-42 ; Rhodes, Vol. V, pp. 516- 
565 ; Dunning, Reconstruction, Political and Economic, Chap. Ill ; 
Burgess, Chap. III. 

3. Congressional Plan of Reconstruction: Schouler, Vol. VII, 
pp. 43-92 ; Rhodes, Vol. V, pp. 565-625, Vol. VI, Chap. XXXI ; 
Dunning, Reconstruction, Chaps. IV-VI ; Burgess, Chaps. IV-VII. 

4. The Impeachment of President Johnson : Schouler, Vol. VII, 
pp. 99-123; Rhodes, Vol. VI, Chap. XXXIII; Dunning, Essays, 
Chap. V ; Burgess, Chap. IX. 

5. The Nomination and Election of Grant : Dunning, Recon- 
struction, Chap. VIII ; Stanwood, History of the Presidency, Chap. 
XXIII ; Schouler, Vol. VII, pp. 123-128 ; Rhodes, Vol. VI, Chap. 
XXXIV. 



448 The Civil War 

6. The South under Negro Rule : Dunning, Reconstruction, 
Chaps. VII, XI, XIII, XIV; Burgess, Chap. XII; Schouler, Vol. 
VII, pp. 168-176 ; Rhodes, Vol. VI, Chap. XXXVII ; W. L. Flem- 
ing, Reconstruction in Alabama; J. W. Garner, Reconstruction in 
Mississippi ; H. A. Herbert, Why the Solid South? 

7. Grant as President: Schouler, Vol. VII, Chaps. II, III; 
Rhodes, Vol. VI, Chap. XXXIX ; Dunning, Reconstruction, Chap. 
XVIII ; M. Storey, Charles Sumner, Chaps. XXII-XXV. 

8. The Disputed Election of 1876: Dunning, Reconstruction, 
Chaps. XIX-XXI; Rhodes, Vol. VII, Chaps. XLIII, XLIV ; 
Schouler, Vol. VII, pp. 301-355 ; Stanwood, Chap. XXV. 



PART VT 

THE NBAV NATION 

CHAPTER XXVI 
ECONOMIC CHANGES, 1877-1897 

The period from 1877 to 1897 was one of economic change 
and political readjustment. It witnessed the rapid expansion 
of business, the settlement of the West through The period 
the building of railroads and immigration, the 1877-1897 
organization of trusts, the formation of labor unions and the 
use of boycotts and strikes, the rise and fall of the Populist 
party, and the failure of both State legislatures and Congress 
to regulate the new forms of industrial organization. The 
period closed with an alliance between business and politics, 
in which business controlled, and the Republican party, which 
came into possession of all branches of the government in 1897, 
publicly proclaimed itself the agent of business prosperity. 

The Centennial of the Declaration of Independence was 
celebrated at the beginning of this period by an exhibition 
which was the first revelation of the country's vast resources. 
The great Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893 
registered the wonderful industrial progress that had been 
made in less than two decades. 

The Democratic party, which had lost control of the 
Federal government in 1860 through a factional split, 
recovered ground rapidly after the Civil War prgquent 
and in the elections of 1874 regained control of political 
the House of Representatives. In fact, in '^^^'^s®^ 
eight of the eleven Congresses convened between 1875 and 

449 



450 The New Nation 

1897 the House had a Democratic majority, though in all 
but two of these Congresses the Senate was Republican. In 
four of the six presidential elections held during these years 
the party in power was defeated ; it was a period of political 
change and uncertainty. 

During the whole of Hayes's administration the House was 
Democratic and during the second half the Senate also 
was Democratic, so that even had he possessed the powers 
of leadership which he lacked he could not have put through 
any party legislation. His administration was concerned 
with questions relating to the resumption of specie payments, 
the refunding of the national debt, and the status of paper 
money and of silver in our currency. 

By the Refunding Acts of 1870 and 1871 the treasurer 
was authorized to buy up bonds bearing five, six, and seven 
Resumption P^^ ^^^^ interest and to issue new bonds at four 
of specie and four and one half per cent. In 1869 an act 
payments ^£ Congress pledged the good faith of the United 
States to pay in coin "all obligations not otherwise redeem- 
able" and to redeem legal tender notes in specie "as soon 
as practicable." Finally, in 1875 Congress passed the Re- 
sumption Act, which directed the secretary of the treasury 
to begin the redemption of greenbacks in gold on the first 
of January, 1879. 

The agitation for the retention of the greenbacks as a 
permanent part of our currency had begun about 1868 and 
^, ^ ^ had made great headway in the West. The 

The demand ^ . . ° ^ , , • i 

for an in- independent or Greenback party nommated 

flated candidates for the presidency in 1876, 1880, 

currency 

and 1884, but the advocates of an inflated currency 
finally united forces with those who favored the free coinage 
of silver. The ratio of 16 to 1 for the coinage of silver and 
gold had been fixed by law in 1834, but as silver was under- 
valued little or none was brought to the mint. As the silver 
dollar had been practically out of circulation for a generation 



Economic Changes 



451 



Congress in 1873 dropped it from the list of coins. This 
demonetization of silver, which attracted very little attention 
at the time, was later referred to as "the crime of 1873." 
With the development of the silver mines of the West there 
arose a demand for the recoinage of silver, and in 1878 
Congress passed over the president's veto the Bland-Alli- 
son Bill, which directed 
the secretary of the treas- 
ury to purchase from 
$2,000,000 to $4,000,000 
worth of silver bullion 
each month and to coin 
it into standard silver 
dollars'. 

Hayes had never been 
a real party leader; his 
nomination in xhecam- 
1876 had been paign of 
due entirely to ^ ° 
considerations of "avail- 
ability." Though he had 
corrected many of the 
abuses of the Grant ad- 
ministration he had not 
gone far enough to sat- 
isfy the advanced advo- 
cates of civil service reform. He had thus antagonized both 
reformers and spoilsmen and his advocacy of the gold stand- 
ard had alienated other members of his party. There was 
therefore no serious thought of his renomination in 1880. 

The leading candidates in the Republican party were 
Grant and Blaine. On thirty-six ballots Grant led, but the 
deep-seated opposition to a third term prevented his nomina- 
tion. As there was little chance of Grant's supporters going 
over to Blaine the convention finally selected James A. 




James A. Garfield. 



452 



The New Nation 



Garfield of Ohio as the most available candidate. On the 
nomination of Senator Conkling of New York, who was 
recognized as Grant's spokesman, Chester A. Arthur, who 
had been removed from the position of collector of the port 
of New York by President Hayes for pernicious political 
activity, was placed on the ticket as candidate for the vice- 
presidency, to the great 
dismay of the reform 
wing of the party. 

The Democrats nomi- 
nated as their candidate 
General Winfield Scott 
Hancock, a man of high 
character backed by a 
splendid military record 
during the Civil War. 
The campaign was sin- 
gularly devoid of real 
political issues. The 
Democratic orators made 
undue use of "the crime 
of 1876," by which their 
party had been de- 
prived of the presidency. 
Shortly before the elec- 
tion the tariff question 
assumed unexpected importance. The Democratic platform 
had declared for a tariff "for revenue only," and General 
Hancock when accused of being a free trader tried to avoid 
the issue by declaring that the tariff was a local question. 
Garfield received 214 electoral votes to Hancock's 155, 
though his popular majority was less than 10,000 in a total 
of nearly 9,000,000 votes. 

In the selection of his cabinet Garfield tried to heal the 
breach in the Repubhcan party ; the appointment of James 




Winfield S. Hancock. 



Economic Chansres 453 



^t) 



G. Blaine as secretary of state and most of the other ap- 
pointments were made with this end in view. One of Conk- 
ling's friends was appointed postmaster general, Death of 
but this failed to satisfy him, and when the presi- Garfield 
dent made his own choice for the collectorship at New York 
Conkling opposed the confirmation, and his colleagues, as 
an act of senatorial courtesy, held up the appointment. 
The president, however, refused to be dictated to by the 
New York senator, whereupon Conkling and his colleague, 
Thomas C. Piatt, resigned their seats and appealed to the 
New York legislature, then in session. They failed, how- 
ever, to secure vindication at the hands of that body and 
new senators were chosen for their places. 

The party was also divided on the question of prosecuting 
the frauds which had been discovered in the Post Office 
Department in connection with the "star routes, " as the stage 
coach routes in the West were designated. Some of the 
Republican leaders were involved and undertook to check 
the investigation. 

On July 2, 1881, less than four months after his inaugura- 
tion. President Garfield was shot in a railroad station in 
Washington by a disappointed office seeker who was prob- 
ably insane. He hovered between life and death for weeks, 
and finally died on September 19, in a cottage on the Jersey 
coast where he had been taken by the advice of his physicians. 
The presidency now devolved upon Arthur, who, contrary to 
general expectation, filled the office with great credit to 
himself and with general satisfaction to the country. 

Arthur's administration was occupied with civil service 
reform and labor disputes. The circumstances surrounding 
the assassination of Garfield directed popular Arthur's ad- 
attention to the question of civil service reform, ministration 
Although President Arthur had been regarded as a spoilsman, 
he recommended to Congress the passage of an act creating 
the first Civil Service Commission and in 1883 signed this 



454 



The New Nation 



important measure. He also continued the prosecution of 
the "star route" frauds. In 1882 he vetoed the River and 
Harbor Bill, which had grown to unreasonable proportions. 

As a result of the high tariff rates established during the 
Civil War a surplus was accumulating in the treasury, and 
Congress undertook in 
1882 a revision of the 
tariff. This revision was 
non-partisan, the House 
being Republican and the 
Senate equally divided, 
with two Independents 
holding the balance of 
power. The tariff was 
"revised but not 
changed," both parties 
containing protectionists 
as well as advocates of 
tariff for revenue only. 

It was at about this 
time that organized labor 
Organized began to be a 
labor force in Ameri- 

can politics. The strike 
as a method of advancing 
the interest of the laboring man first came into general use 
in America about 1876 and 1877. The Knights of Labor, 
formed in 1869, was a secret organization including laborers 
of all trades. In 1881 the American Federation of Labor was 
organized on the basis of the trade union, but with the same 
general object of promoting the interests of laborers through 
State and national legislation. In 1884 the office of com- 
missioner of labor was created in the Department of the 
Interior. As the two dominant political parties were now 
nearly equal in strength the attitude of the laboring classes, 




Chester A. Arthur. 



Economic Changes 455 

especially of the foreign born who made up such a large 
proportion of the ranks, became a question of vital im- 
portance. 

The Republican National Convention met in Chicago 
early in June, 1884, and nominated James G. Blaine for 
president and John A. Logan for vice-president, ^j^^ „ j^^ 
Blaine had come near winning the nomination in wump " 
1876 and in 1880, and as he had been Garfield's ^^'^p^'^'' 
intimate friend and political adviser he now had additional 
strength. Outside of his own state, Maine, he had little 
strength in New England, but he had a large personal follow- 
ing throughout the rest of the country and his nomination 
created widespread enthusiasm. While there had been vague 
warnings that his nomination might alienate the reform 
element of the party, no one had accurately gauged the 
extent of the opposition. 

The announcement of Blaine's nomination was followed by 
a formidable revolt of prominent Republicans and party news- 
papers. The Independents were especially strong in New 
York, where the term " Mugwump " was first applied to them. 
The movement was led by such prominent Republicans as Carl 
Schurz, George Wilham Curtis, and Henry Ward Beecher. 

The leading candidate for the Democratic nomination 
was Grover Cleveland, who had been elected governor of New 
York in 1882 by the unheard of majority of 192,000. He 
had carried out important reforms in that State notwith- 
standing the opposition of Tammany Hall, and it was known 
that his nomination would be acceptable to the Republican 
bolters. When the Democratic Convention met in Chicago 
early in July, Cleveland was nominated on the second ballot. 
The Mugwumps supported him and their support determined 
the issue. 

Although "purity in politics" was the watchword of the 
Independents, probably no campaign in American history 
has been fought so largely on personalities. Scandalous 



456 



The New Nation 



reports concerning the morals of the two candidates were 
circulated. Blaine made an open play for the foreign vote, 
Election of ^ut an incident which occurred on the eve of the 
Cleveland election probably cost him the State of New York 
and the presidency. A clergyman, who headed a delegation 
which met him in New York as he was returning from a 

campaign tour, said in 
the course of his re- 
marks that the Demo- 
cratic party was the 
party of "rum, Roman- 
ism, and rebellion." The 
phrase was taken up by 
the press and erroneously 
attributed to Blaine. It 
cost him thousands of 
votes throughout the 
country and had the 
effect in New York of 
solidifying the Irish vote 
for Cleveland. Cleve- 
land had a majority of 
37 votes in the Electoral 
College, but his popular 
majority in New York 
was only about 1100. A 
change of 600 votes would have given New York and the 
presidency to Blaine. 

Grover Cleveland was the first Democratic president in- 
augurated since Buchanan. Throughout the whole of his 
Grover first administration the Senate was Republican, 

Cleveland gQ [^ ^^s impossible for the president and the 
Democratic House to carry out the pledges of the party 
platform. Cleveland was a man of great force of character 
and independence of judgment. Although he had had no 




Grover Cleveland. 



Economic Changes 457 

experience in national politics, he possessed qualities which 
quickly won him the confidence of the people. He always 
had the courage of his convictions ; during his first term he 
vetoed 260 private pension bills ; his vetoes were based on 
careful examinations, and the Grand Army of the Republic 
refused in 1887 to pass a resolution of censure. He also 
vetoed a River and Harbor Bill, which he considered an un- 
warranted raid on the pubhc treasury. Notwithstanding the 
solicitations of the Democratic poUticians, he carried out a con- 
sistent policy of civil service reform and by executive orders 
nearly doubled the number of those in the classified service. 

Cleveland's first administration witnessed the rapid 
development of the territory between the Mississippi and 
the Rocky Mountains. Most of the great trans- The growth 
continental railroads had by this time either by of the West 
construction or consoHdation completed their lines to the Pa- 
cific. The railroads encouraged immigration and coloniza- 
tion ; they had lands to sell and wanted freight to haul ; 
they had to create communities in order to reaUze profits. 

The land laws of the United States, that is, the preemption, 
homestead, and timber laws, had been framed in the interest 
of the small landholder and no provision had been made for 
enterprises requiring large acreage. Railroad and lumber 
companies openly violated these laws and Cleveland under- 
took to correct frauds and abuses. He successfully ousted 
cattle companies which had fenced in public lands and 
driven off "trespassers" with rifles. He also recovered 
lands which had been granted to railroads and forfeited by 
non-completion to the extent of 50,000,000 acres. 

The Dawes Indian Act of 1887, by permitting Indians to 
hold land in severalty, was the first step in the process of 
making the Indian a citizen and breaking up the tribal 
organization. Shortly before the close of Cleveland's 
administration the Department of Agriculture was created 
with a seat in the cabinet. 



458 The New Nation 

Railroad construction and the consolidation of lines had 
proceeded at such a rapid rate that the State legislatures 
Regulation found it impossible to cope with the new problems 
of railroads that Were continually arising. Cut rates, re- 
bates, special privileges, and various forms of discrimination 
were becoming all too common. In the Granger Cases in 
1877 the Supreme Court had held that the States had the 
right to establish rates by law even though these rates 
affected interstate commerce. In 1886, in the case of the 
Wabash Railroad v. Illinois, the Court reversed its opinion, 
holding that railroads were subject to regulation, but that 
such regulation where interstate rates were concerned was 
exclusively a Federal function. 

The next year Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act 
creating a commission of five, no more than three of whom 
should belong to one party, vested with the power to investi- 
gate and prevent unfair discrimination in rates. The con- 
struction placed by the courts upon the act deprived the 
commission of some of the powers which Congress had in- 
tended to bestow upon it, and it was some years before the 
defects in the original act were remedied by further legisla- 
tion. The railroads were not disposed to recognize the quasi- 
pubUc nature of their business and chd everything they 
could to evade the law. 

A large part of the Civil War debt had been paid off and 
the rest funded in long term bonds. Most of the emergency 
Surplus and taxation of the Civil War period had been repealed , 
pensions \^^i i\^q j^jgh tariff continued to roll up a large sur- 
plus in the treasury and this surplus invited extravagance 
in appropriations. The annual River and Harbor Bill had 
grown to enormous proportions and both Arthur and Cleve- 
land had found it necessary to interpose the veto. 

The politicians, however, discovered a new means of dis- 
posing of the surplus. The Grand Army of the RepubUc, 
originally a social and fraternal organization, now began a 



Economic Changes 459 

systematic raid on the treasury and was soon converted into 
a powerful political machine. Pensions had been granted 
hitherto for disabilities received in the service. In 1887 
Congress passed a bill granting pensions for incapacity and 
dependence of every kind, and Cleveland promptly vetoed it. 
A bill of the same character was, however, passed under 
Hariison in 1890, which in the course of ten years took out 
of the public treasury $1,350,000,000. Pensions were later 
granted to all who had seen three months' service, so that 
during the next decade the appropriations were even larger, 
and they still continue. 

As the South has paid its share of this enormous sum, 
which has been distributed mainly in the North and West, 
the pension system has had the effect of imposing on the 
South one of the heaviest war indemnities that any conquered 
people have ever been called to pay. The system has not 
only impoverished the South, but it has also won thousands 
of supporters for a high tariff. 

President Cleveland had other ideas as to the method of 
reducing the surplus. In his annual message of 1887 he 
gave almost his entire attention to the topic of jije tariff 
tariff reform. In 1888 a tariff bill introduced becomes a 
from the Ways and Means Committee by Roger P^'^y issue 
Q. Mills of Texas led to a great debate in the House. Al- 
though some of the Democratic leaders had urged Cleve- 
land against taking this step, when the issue was finally 
drawn he had the soUd support of the Democratic party. 
The Republicans were equally united against the measure, 
and thus for the first time in more than twenty years the 
two great national parties were fined up on a definite, clear- 
cut issue. The bill passed the House of Representatives, 
but with the Repubficans in control of the Senate it was not 
allowed to come to a vote in that body. 

President Cleveland had thus staked his political fortunes 
on a single issue. There was Uttle doubt that he would again 



460 The New Nation 

be the nominee of his party and it was generally expected 
that Blaine would a second time be his opponent. When 
Tt,„ --o™ the Democratic convention assembled in St. Louis 

Ine cam- 
paign of in June Cleveland was nominated by acclamation 

with great enthusiasm ; Allen G. Thurman of 
Ohio was nominated with equal enthusiasm for the vice- 
presidency. 

The Repubhcan convention met in Chicago on June 19. 
In January Blaine had addressed a letter from Florence, 
Italy, to the chairman of the Republican National Com- 
mittee, in which he declared that on account of "considera- 
tions entirely personal" he had decided not to permit his 
name to be presented to the convention. This letter was a 
bitter disappointment to his friends and political followers ; 
many of them refused to accept it as a final declination of the 
nomination. A large number of candidates, however, at 
once entered the field, and when the convention met there 
was no indication as to who would win the honor. Benjamin 
Harrison of Indiana was finally nominated, with Levi P. 
Morton of New York for vice-president. 

During the campaign that followed the attention of the 
country was given to debates on the tariff. There was only 
Defeat of one incident that distracted attention from this 
Cleveland issue. About two weeks before the election a 
letter was made public written by Lord Sackville-West, the 
British Minister at Washington, to Charles F. Murchison, a 
resident of California, who had represented himself as a 
former British subject, now a naturaUzed American. He 
sought advice from the British minister as to how he should 
vote in the coming election. Lord Sackville-West replied 
that he thought Cleveland was more friendly to England than 
Harrison. The whole affair was a hoax ; Murchison was a 
fictitious name. The Republicans published the correspond- 
ence, with the intention of drawing the Irish vote from 
Cleveland. The president, however, promptly brought the 



Economic Changes 



461 



matter to the attention of the British government, and on 
the failure of Lord Salisbury to take any action, Cleveland 
gave the British minister his passports. Although Cleveland 
received 100,000 more popular votes than Harrison, the latter 
had a majority of 65 in the electoral college. 

The most important 
measures of Harrison's 
administration were the 
McKinley Tariff Act, the 
Sherman An- Harrison'3 

ti-TruSt Act, administra- 

and the Sher- *^°° 
man Silver Purchase Act. 
Notwithstanding the fact 
that Cleveland had re- 
ceived more popular 
votes than Harrison, the 
Republicans regarded 
their victory as a repudi- 
ation of Cleveland's tariff 
policy and proceeded to 
pass a new act which em- 
phasized more than ever 
the doctrine of protec- 
tion. The McKinley 
Tariff of 1890 increased 
the amount of protection and at the same time reduced the 
revenue. Raw sugar was admitted free and a bounty of two 
cents a pound was granted to the American producer of 
sugar. This act contained two novel features : it author- 
ized the president to impose a duty on tin plate as soon 
as the American mills were ready to manufacture it ; and 
through the influence of Blaine, who was Harrison's sec- 
retary of state, a reciprocity provision was introduced 
whereby certain imports from Latin America were to be 




Benjamin Harrison. 



462 The New Nation 

admitted at lower rates in return for favors granted to 
American goods. 

The question of controlling the larger corporations and 
trusts had been under discussion for several years. Al- 
The Sher- though drafted by RepubUcans the Sherman Anti- 
man Anti- Trust Act was not entirely a party measure. It 
rust ct declared illegal "every contract, combination in 
the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of 
trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign 
nations." The same Congress passed the Silver Purchase 
Act, directing the secretary of the treasury to purchase 
4,500,000 ounces of silver each month and to issue in pay- 
ment thereof treasury notes redeemable in gold or silver at 
the discretion of the secretary of the treasury. At the same 
time Congress declared that it was the intention of the 
United States to maintain the two metals on a parity. On 
account of its large appropriations for pensions, river and 
harbor improvements, and other reckless expenditures this 
Congress became famous as the "BilHon Dollar" Congress. 

The solid Democratic South was a thorn in the side of the 
Repubhcan party, and in the campaign of 1888 that party 
Disfran- pledged itself to the enforcement of the Fourteenth 
chisement and Fifteenth Amendments. In 1890 a Force Bill, 
o t e negro ^|^jg}^ placed the control of Southern elections in 
Federal hands, passed the House and was championed in the 
Senate by Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts. It was, 
however, defeated by a combination of Southern senators 
and Republican senators from the silver States of the West. 
This combination was destined to have an important in- 
fluence on national politics a few years later. 

Meanwhile, the growth of the Populist party in the South, 
dividing the whites, threatened to give the negroes the 
balance of power, and it became necessary to find some 
method of depriving the negro of the suffrage. In this 
significant movement Mississippi led the way. The new 



Economic Changes 463 



'o 



State constitution of 1890 prescribed for all voters the pay- 
ment of a poll tax of two dollars by the first of February of 
the year in which the election was held, and abiUty to read 
any section of the State constitution or to understand and 
interpret it when read. It further disqualified from voting 
all those who had been convicted of "bribery, burglary, theft, 
arson, obtaining money or goods under false pretenses, per- 
jury, embezzlement or bigamy, " offenses which were common 
among the negroes. While these requirements excluded a 
large percentage of negro voters, they also excluded quite a 
large number of whites. 

In order to meet this difficulty the Louisiana constitution 
of 1897 adopted the famous "grandfather clause," which 
provided that no male person who was entitled 
to vote on January 1, 1867, and no son or grand- "grand- 
son of any such person over twenty-one years father 
of age at the time of the adoption of the new 
constitution should be denied the right to vote by reason of 
his failure to possess the necessary educational or property 
qualifications. This clause restored to the electorate the 
poor and illiterate whites who would otherwise have been 
excluded. This, or some similar device for disfranchising 
the negro, was adopted within a few years by most of the 
Southern States. The grandfather clause was, however, of 
only temporary duration, that is to say, voters could reg- 
ister under it prior to a certain date. After the date men- 
tioned new applicants for registration had to meet the educa- 
tional or property test. 

Several cases designed to test the validity of the new South- 
ern constitutions were carried to the Supreme Court of the 
United States, but the Court turned them down on technical 
grounds and failed to pass on the merits of the question. The 
new Oklahoma constitution of 1910, however, undertook to 
make the grandfather clause of permanent duration. In a 
decision handed down June 21, 1915, the Supreme Court 



464 The New Nation 

held that the exemption from the literacy test of persons 
who voted in 1866 and their descendants was contrary to the 
Fifteenth Amendment, as it perpetuated the conditions 
which that amendment was intended to destroy. 

The effect of the new Southern constitutions has been 
to eliminate the negro from politics. During the days of 
The new reconstruction and for some years afterwards he 
South ^as deprived of political power through intim- 

idation, fraud, and bribery. The necessary resort to such 
measures lowered the political morale of the South and 
created unfortunate conditions in many of the Southern 
States. The present method, although an evasion of the 
Fifteenth Amendment, is effective and renders unnecessary 
a resort to fraud and intimidation. Under the new con- 
stitution of Mississippi only 8615 out of 147,000 negroes of 
voting age were registered ; in Louisiana the number of negro 
voters fell from 127,000 in 1896 to 5300 in 1900. In 1900 
there were over 350,000 adult male negroes in South Carolina 
and Mississippi, yet the total Republican vote in both these 
States was only 5433, of whom probably 2000 were whites. 
It thus appears that about 99 of every 100 negroes failed to 
vote. 

The North has to a large extent acquiesced in this result. 
This attitude of mind has been brought about, partly by 
the realization that the bestowal of unlimited suffrage upon 
the negro was a stupendous error, and partly by the develop- 
ment of the industrial South with the aid of Northern 
capital. During the last thirty years industries which 
were undreamed of in the days of cotton and slavery 
have been developed with amazing rapidity. With the 
production of timber, coal, iron, and the manufacture of 
cotton the South has entered upon an era of industrialism, 
which has given rise to problems that, do not differ essen- 
tially from those that claim the attention of other parts of 
the country. 



Economic Chansres 465 



'& 



In 1876 Colorado was admitted to the Union ; no other 
State was admitted until 1889. Before the expiration of 
Cleveland's term the Democrats passed, and the xheadmis- 
president signed, a bill admitting North Dakota, sionof new 
South Dakota, Montana, and Washington. As **^®^ 
these States were likely to be Republican, the Democrats 
had not been disposed to admit them, but after the election 
of 1888, when it became evident that the Republicans would 
control all branches of the national government, the Dem- 
ocrats had no reason for further delay and admitted these 
States. Idaho and Wyoming were not included in the bill, 
but they were admitted by the Republicans in 1890. The 
Republicans, on the other hand, prevented Arizona and New 
Mexico from coming in in 1889 and 1890 because they would 
naturally be Democratic. They were not admitted until 1912. 

Utah presented quite a different case. That territory had 
acquired a large population and attained a high degree of 
prosperity by 1850, but hostility to the Mormons on account 
of the existence of polygamy kept Utah from being admitted 
until 1896. With the admission of Idaho and Wyoming 
there was for the first time a continuous belt of States from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific. The frontier had at last disap- 
peared ; most of the public land that was suitable for cultiva- 
tion had been occupied. If the population of the West was 
to continue to increase, irrigation and more intensive methods 
of cultivation must be introduced. As a nation we had 
been lavish and wasteful in the use of natural resources and 
the necessity for conserving these resources had not been 
apparent. 

The rapid settlement of the West had been unduly stimu- 
lated by the raikoads. The Western farmer operated on 
borrowed capital. As long as the rainfall was suf- ^j^^ ^^^ 
ficient crops were good and he was able to pay the of the 
interest on his mortgages. In 1889 the rainfall was p°p^*^*^ 
decidedly below the normal and crops failed over large areas, 



466 The New Nation 

causing widespread dissatisfaction. The farmer felt that the 
government was run in the interests of Eastern merchants 
and manufacturers. There was Httle difhcuity in convincing 
him that the McKinley Tariff had been framed in the inter- 
est of the capitahstic classes. 

In the 80's the Farmers' Alliance had become a national 
organization superseding the Granger movement of the 70's. 
In December, 1889, the Farmers' Alliance held a national 
convention at St. Louis and took the first step in the organiza- 
tion of the People's party. The leaders of the movement, 
convinced of the hopeless conservatism of the two older 
parties, hoped to combine in one radical party organized 
labor and organized agriculture. The labor leaders regarded 
the new movement with favor, though as the event proved 
the new party did not succeed in winning the undivided labor 
vote. The decline in agricultural prices and the increasing 
cost of manufactured articles created a demand in the West 
and South for cheaper money, and the demand for the free 
coinage of silver, stimulated by the mining interests of the 
West, became one of the chief tenets of the new party. 

In the congressional elections of 1890 the Republicans 
lost control of the House. In many of the Western States 
there was a combination of Democrats and Farmers' Alli- 
ance men, and in the new House there were 236 Democrats, 
8 Populists, and only 88 Republicans. The Repubhcans 
retained control of the Senate by a narrow margin. 

Harrison and Cleveland were again the candidates in 1892. 
David B. Hill had been elected governor of New York in 
The cam- 1888 although the electoral vote of the State had 
paignof gone to Harrison, and it was openly charged that 
^ ^^ Hill had betrayed Cleveland through a combina- 

tion with the Republicans in order to secure his own election 
as governor. In February, 1892, Hill, who through Tam- 
many Hall controlled the New York organization, held a 
"snap convention" and secured a delegation pledged to his 



Economic Changes 467 

support against Cleveland. When the Democratic conven- 
tion met in Chicago, however, on June 21, Cleveland was 
nominated on the first ballot. 

The Republican convention had met at Minneapolis two 
weeks earlier and renominated Harrison. Harrison had not 
grown in popularity either with the politicians or with the 
rank and file of his party and there had been a widespread 
demand for Blaine. But the latter, who was in bad health, 
had written a letter announcing that he was not a candidate. 
Three days before the meeting of the convention he threw 
the party into a state of bewilderment by suddenly resigning 
the position of secretary of state. It was known that his 
relations with the president were strained and his resigna- 
tion, without any accompanying explanation, was taken 
by many as an indication that he had changed his mind 
about the nomination. No explanation of his action has 
ever been given. Harrison was nominated on the first 
ballot, though Blaine received 182 votes. 

Cleveland and Harrison were both conservatives and the 
platforms oh which they ran agreed in making the tariff the 
main issue of the campaign. The People's party, ^. 
which met in convention at Omaha, July 2, boldly election of 
denounced what was termed "a sham battle over ^'^^®^^°<^ 
the tariff," and put forth one of the most radical and signifi- 
cant platforms ever placed before the American people; it 
contained most of the important reforms which were the 
subject of political agitation for the next twenty-five years. 
Among other things it advocated the free coinage of silver 
at the ratio of 16 to 1, a graduated income tax, postal savings 
banks, government ownership of telegraph and telephone 
lines, the Australian ballot, the restriction of immigration, 
an eight hour day on all government work, the initiative 
and referendum, and the election of United States Senators 
by direct vote of the people. 

The contest between the two older parties centered about 



468 The New Nation 

the tariff. The McKinley Bill had reduced the revenue 
and caused a rise in prices; the Repubhcans were on the 
defensive and the Democratic party posed as the champion 
of the consumer. The result of the election was a surprise 
to everybody. Cleveland carried not only the solid South 
and all the doubtful States by large majorities, but he also 
carried the Republican strongholds of Illinois, Wisconsin, 
and California. One of the surprises of the election was that 
General James B. Weaver, the Populist candidate, received 
over 1,000,000 popular votes and the electoral votes of 
five States, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, and North 
Dakota, as well as one of the three votes of Oregon. 

With the inauguration of Cleveland the Democratic 
party came into full control of the government for the first 
The panic of time since 1860, but it was called upon unex- 
^^93 pectedly to face the most serious financial crisis 

in the history of the country. For fourteen years the 
country had enjoyed uninterrupted prosperity. Financial 
disturbances abroad, beginning with the failure of Baring 
Brothers, had before the close of Harrison's acfministration 
started a heavy exportation of gold, the stock of which in 
the treasury had already been considerably reduced through 
the operation of the McKinley Tariff and the expenditures 
for pensions and river and harbor improvements. 

Meanwhile the operation of the Sherman Silver Purchase 
Act had greatly increased the amount of credit money. 
Furthermore, there had been overspeculation and inflation 
of values. When Cleveland came into office the gold reserve 
in the treasury, on which the value of silver and paper money 
depended, was rapidly dwindling. Neither party had ex- 
pressed itself unequivocally on the silver issue, but Mr. 
Cleveland was outspoken in his support of the gold standard 
and, summoning Congress to meet in extra session in August, 
he urged the immediate repeal of the Sherman Act. The 
House promptly repealed the act but the Senate debated 



Economic Changes 4G9 



'to 



the matter until the last of October, when the repeal was 
carried through that body with the aid of Republican 
Senators. 

With the Democratic party badly split on the financial 
question the regular session of Congress in December under- 
took to enact a new tariff law. A bill framed by The Wilson 
William L. Wilson and embodying the views of Tariff Act 
tariff reform which had been advocated by the Democrats 
during the recent campaign was successfully put through the 
House. This measure placed a number of raw materials 
on the free list, reduced duties upon manufactured goods, 
substituted ad valorem for specific duties in a large number 
of cases, and in order to supplement the reduced revenue from 
the tariff imposed a two per cent tax on all incomes in excess 
of $4000. 

The bill was badly mutilated in the Senate, where the 
Republicans, with the aid of a group of Democratic Senators 
headed by Arthur P. Gorman, succeeded in striking coal, 
iron ore, and sugar from the free list. President Cleveland 
was so chagrined at the failure of a Democratic Senate to 
carry out the party pledges that he permitted the bill to be- 
come a law without his signature. A few months later the 
Supreme Court of the United States declared the income tax 
unconstitutional by a vote of five to four, one of the justices 
who was understood to favor the tax having unexpectedly 
changed his mind. 

The failure of banks, the closing of factories, and the 
general business depression that ensued from the financial 
crisis threw hundreds of thousands of workmen Labor 
out of employment and produced during the troubles 
winter of 1893-1894 the most serious labor disturbances that 
the country had ever witnessed. Mobs of the unemployed 
threatened to coerce city councils and State legislatures, 
while a widely advertised band known as ''Coxey's Army" 
was organized in the far West and marched to Washington 



470 The New Nation 

for the purpose of demanding rehef from the Federal govern- 
ment. 

In June, 1894, the members of the American Railway 
Union entered upon a sympathetic strike to aid the em- 
ployees of the Pullman Car Company and refused to op- 
erate trains to which Pullman Cars were attached. As 
serious rioting occurred in Chicago and the city and State 
authorities seemed unable to control the mob. President 
Cleveland promptly ordered United States troops to Chicago 
to prevent interference with the mails. Against this action 
Governor Altgeld of Illinois vigorously protested on the 
ground that the national government had no right to send 
troops into the State to preserve order unless he requested 
them. 

Meanwhile, a Federal judge had issued an injunction order- 
ing the members of the American Railway Union to refrain 
from interfering with the operation of certain designated 
railroads. Eugene V. Debs ignored the injunction and was 
arrested and imprisoned for contempt of court. This use 
of the injunction, which was frequently resorted to later by 
other Federal judges, became one of the principal griev- 
ances of the Labor party. 

The Democratic party was now hopelessly divided on the 
question of finance. The president had driven the advocates 
Thesoiitin ^^ ^^^® silver into close alliance with the Populists, 
the Demo- He had antagonized organized labor. Business 
cratic party (jepj.gggion was attributed by the advocates of free 
silver in the South and West to the president's maintenance 
of the gold standard and by the Republicans of the East to 
the Wilson tariff. The failure of the Supreme Court to up- 
hold the income tax helped to increase the deficit in the 
treasury. In the congressional elections of 1894 the Repub- 
licans secured control of both House and Senate. President 
Cleveland had apparently been repudiated by the country 
as well as by his own party. His further efforts to maintain 



Economic Changes 



471 



the gold standard through the sale of bonds and the agree- 
ment made in February, 1895, with J. P. Morgan to protect 
the gold reserve in the treasury against further raids, caused 
him to be denounced in the harshest possible terms by the 
silver wing of his party. 

In 1892 the Democratic and Republican parties had both 
tried to dodge the silver issue. In the preconvention cam- 
paign of 1896 the Republicans again tried to avoid The silver 
committing themselves on this issue. Their princi- ^^^"® 
pal candidate, William McKinley of Ohio, had openly advo- 
cated free silver, but as 
he was also the author of 
the tariff bill of 1890 and 
as the Republicans in- 
tended to make the tariff 
the main issue of the 
campaign, he seemed to 
be the strongest candi- 
date. His campaign for 
the nomination was man- 
aged by Marcus A. 
Hanna, a successful busi- 
ness man of Cleveland, 
who now introduced ef- 
fective business methods 
into politics. During the 
preceding winter Hanna 
had gone South and 
through the free use of 
money among the negroes had secured for McKinley the 
Southern delegates to the Republican convention. He did 
his work so thoroughly and systematically that when the 
convention met at St. Louis, June 16, the nomination of 
McKinley was secured on the first ballot. The question of 
the platform was not so easily decided. The advocates of 




William Jennings Bryan. 



472 The New Nation 

the gold standard finally prevailed and thirty-four silver 
Republicans withdrew from the convention. 

The Democratic party met in Chicago early in July. No 
candidate had the lead and the attention of the whole coun- 
try was centered on the question as to whether the convention 
would pronounce in favor of free silver or not. The Silverites 
controlled from the start and the platform demanded "the 
free and unlimited coinage of both silver and gold at the 
present legal ratio of 16 to 1 without waiting for the aid 
or consent of any other nation." 

In the debate on the silver plank William J. Bryan of 
Nebraska captivated the convention by a brilliant speech 
Nomination in advocacy of free silver, closing with the now 
of Bryan famous words : "You shall not press down upon 
the brow of labor this crown of thorns ; you shall not crucify 
mankind upon a crgi^s ^ gold." He was nominated on the 
fifth ballot. At this time he was only thirty-six years of age 
and, although heji^lljcen a member of Congress, his name 
was unknown in the East. The Populists met in St. Louis 
a few days later and :^dorsed Bryan. This fusion with the 
Democrats was the deathblow to the People's party, which 
had been launched under such favorable auspices in 1892. 
The Gold Democrats repudiated Bryan and placed a second 
ticket in the field with John M. Palmer of Illinois as their 
candidate for president and Simon B. Buckner of Kentucky 
for vice-president. Bryan, a young and vigorous speaker, 
introduced a new method of campaigning. He traveled all 
over the country preaching the gospel of free silver to hun- 
dreds of thousands of his fellow citizens. 

McKinley, on the other hand, remained quietly at his 
home at Canton, Ohio, receiving delegates on his front porch. 
The election but leaving the conduct of the campaign to his 
of McKinley friend Hanna. Old political lines seemed to have 
disappeared ; the old parties were, for the time being, re- 
placed by a gold party and a silver party. Hanna succeeded 



Economic Changes 473 

in firmly cementing the alliance between business and the 
Republicans, and McKinley, who was loudly proclaimed "as 
the advance agent of prosperity," was elected. Bryan 
carried the solid South and a number of States in the West, 
but all the States north of the Potomac and east of the 
Mississippi went for McKinley. The vote was the heaviest 
that had ever been cast; Bryan received 6,500,000 and 
McKinley over 7,000,000 votes. 

Shortly after the inauguration of McKinley, Congress 
was convened in extra session and enacted the Dingley 
Tariff, which was signed July 24, 1897. The 
duties imposed by this measure were higher than Tariff and 
those of the McKinley bill. As an excuse for these *^^ g°'^ 
excessive rates the act authorized the president 
to negotiate reciprocity treaties with foreign nations, by 
which, it was claimed that many of the duties would be 
lowered. A number of such treaties were negotiated by John 
A. Kasson and submitted by the prej^j^jit to the Senate, 
but that body failed to ratify them. 

Before the next presidential election the Gold Standard 
Act was put through Congress by the Republicans, com- 
mitting them unequivocally to the policy of maintaining a 
sufficient gold reserve in the treasury to keep the country 
on a gold basis. The alliance between the Republican party 
and big business was thus firmly cemented, and the Spanish 
War with the new questions that it raised obscured for several 
years the radical tendencies that had come to light in the 
campaigns of 1892 and 1896. 

TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. Financial Readjustment after the Civil War: E. E. Sparks, 
National Development, pp. 137-147 ; F. L. Paxson, The New Na- 
tion, Chaps. II, IV, V ; D. R. Dewey, Financial History of the 
United States, Chap. XV. 

2. Civil Service Reform : Sparks, -Chaps. X, XII ; D. R. Dewey, 



474 The New Nation 

National Problems, Chap. II ; E. B. Andrews, The United States 
in Our Own Time, Chap. IX. 

3. The Election of Cleveland in 1884: Sparks, Chap. XIX; 
Paxson, Chap. VIII ; Andrews, Chap. XVII ; Stanwood, History 
of the Presidency, Chap. XXVII. 

4. The Far West: Paxson, Chap. IX; Sparks, Chap. XV; 
Dewey, National Problems, Chap. I. 

5. The New South : Paxson, Chap. XII ; Sparks, Chaps. VI, 
VIII ; Dewey, National Problems, Chap. X ; Andrews, Chap. XXV ; 
P. A. Bruce, Rise of the New South. 

6. The Tariff Issue : Dewey, National Problems, Chaps. IV, 
VIII, XI, XVII, Financial History, Chaps. XVIII-XX; F. W. 
Taussig, Tariff History of the United States, Part II, Chaps. II-VII. 

7. The Trusts : Dewey, National Problems, Chap. XII ; Pax- 
son, Chap. X ; E. L. Bogart, Economic History of the United States, 
Chap. XXVII. 

8. The Rise of the Populists : Paxson, Chaps. XI, XIII ; C. A. 
Beard, Contemporary American History, Chap. VI ; Stanwood, 
History of the Presidency, pp. 508-518. 

9. Financial Depression and Labor Disturbances : Dewey, Na- 
tional Problems, Chaps. XVI, XVIII ; Andrews, Chap. XXIV. 

10. The Silver Qfi«stion : Dewey, Financial History, Chaps. 
XVII, XIX, National Problems, Chaps. XIV, XX ; Paxson, Chap. 
XIV; Andrews, Chap. XXVI; Beard, Chap. VII; Stanwood, 
Chap. XXXI. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

FOREIGN RELATIONS, 1865-1897 

The Civil War left standing two serious disputes with 
foreign powers, the one with France over the presence of her 
troops in Mexico and the other with England over 

. ., „^ withdrawal 

the Alaoa7na Clanns. As the Civil War drew to of the 

a successful conclusion Secretary Seward's pro- French from 

IVTcxico 

tests against the continued intervention of France 
in Mexico became more and more emphatic. Finally in 
December, 1865, he declared to France that friendly rela- 
tions would be seriously jeopardized by a continuance of her 
Mexican policy and a little later he demanded to know when 
the military occupation would come to an end. 

The Emperor Louis Napoleon finally decided that he 
could not risk a war with the United States and on April 5, 
1866, announced that the French troops would evacuate 
Mexico in three detachments, covering a period of eighteen 
months. When the time came for the first detachment to 
withdraw, no action was taken, but Napoleon explained to 
the United States that he had decided to withdraw all his 
troops in a body the following spring. The success of Prussia 
in the Austrian War of 1866 was a serious blow to Napoleon's 
prestige and in order to prepare for the conflict with that 
power, which he now regarded as inevitable, he decided to 
leave Maximilian to his fate. That unhappy prince was 
soon overthrown by Juarez and summarily shot. 

When the United States first demanded reparation for 
the damage inflicted on American commerce by the Alabama 
and other Confederate cruisers the British government dis- 

475 



476 The New Nation 

claimed all liability on the ground that the fitting out of 
the cruisers had not been completed within British jurisdic- 
" The ^^^^- Even after the close of the war the British 

Alabama government continued to reject all proposals for a 

"™^ settlement. The American nation, flushed with 

victory, was bent on redress and so deep-seated was the re- 
sentment against England that the Fenian movement, which 
had for its object the establishment of an independent re- 
public in Ireland, met with open encouragement in this 
coimtry. In 1866 several thousand Irishmen undertook to 
invade Canada from the United States, and were driven back 
by the Canadian authorities. At the same time numbers of 
Irishmen who had been naturalized in this country returned 
to their native land and conspired against England. Many 
of them were arrested and the American government felt 
called upon to ask for their release. The House of Repre- 
sentatives encouraged the Fenian movement to the extent of 
repealing the law forbidding Americans to fit out ships for 
belligerents, but the Senate failed to concur. 

The successful war waged by Prussia against Austria in 

1866 disturbed the European balance and rumblings of the 

_. approaching Franco-Prussian war caused un- 

The .... 

Johnson- easmess in British cabinet circles. Fearing that 

Clarendon jf Great Britain were drawn into the conflict the 

convention . i • i i 

American people might take a sweet revenge by 
fitting out "Alabamas" for her enemies, the British govern- 
ment assumed a more conciliatory attitude and in January, 
1869, Lord Clarendon signed with Reverdy Johnson, who had 
succeeded Adams as minister to England, a convention pro- 
viding for the submission to a mixed commission of all claims 
which had arisen since 1853. Though the convention in- 
cluded, it did not specifically mention the "Alabama Claims," 
and it failed to contain any expression of regret for the course 
pursued by the British government during the war. The 
Senate therefore refused by an almost unanimous vote to 



Foreign Relations, 1865-1897 477 

ratify the arrangement, much to the disappointment of 
Secretary Seward, who had hoped to settle this question be- 
fore leaving the State Department. 

Seward's successor, Hamilton Fish,' renewed the negotia- 
tions through Motley, tlie American minister at London, 
but the latter was unduly influenced by the ex- xhe Treaty 
treme views of Sumner, chairman of the Senate of 
Committee on Foreign Relations, to whose infiu- Washington 
ence he owed his appointment, and got things in a bad tangle. 
Fish then transferred the negotiations to Washington, where 
a Joint High Commission appointed to settle the various 
disputes with Canada convened in February, 1871. The 
main obstacle in the way of a settlement was now the chair- 
man of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate. 
Sumner insisted that England should pay damages not only 
for the property actually destroyed by the Confederate 
cruisers, but also indirect damages for the increased rates of 
insurance, for the loss sustained through the transfer of 
American shipping to foreign flags, and for the prolongation 
of the war resulting from England's hasty recognition and 
subsequent encouragement of the Confederates. Realizing 
that the sum total of these claims would be too vast even 
for England to pay, he suggested that the least she could do 
would be to withdraw from this hemisphere, leaving Canada 
and her West Indian possessions to be annexed by the United 
States. President Grant had now lost all patience with 
Sumner, who had violently opposed his pet scheme for the 
annexation of Santo Domingo, and when the Senate con- 
vened in March, 1871, Sumner was dropped from the Com- 
mittee on Foreign Relations, Motley was recalled from Lon- 
don, and on May 8 the treaty of Washington was signed. 

Besides providing for the settlement of questions that had 
arisen with Canada in regard to commerce, navigation, inshore 
fisheries, and the northwest boundary, the treaty of Washing- 
ton provided for submitting the ''Alabama Claims" to an 



478 The New Nation 

arbitration tribunal composed of five members, one ap- 
pointed by England, one by the United States, and the 
The Geneva Other three by the rulers of Italy, Switzerland, 
arbitration ^nd Brazil. When this tribunal met at Geneva 
the following year the United States, greatly to the surprise 
of everybody, presented the indirect claims as well as the 
direct, and Great Britain threatened to withdraw. 

Charles Francis Adams, the American member of the tri- 
bunal, rose to the occasion, however, and decided against the 
contention of his own government. The indirect claims were 
rejected by unanimous vote and on the direct claims the 
United States was awarded the sum of $15,500,000. Al- 
though the British member of the tribunal dissented from 
this decision, his government promptly paid the award. 
This was the most important case that had ever been sub- 
mitted to arbitration and its successful adjustment encour- 
aged the hope that the two great branches of the English 
speaking people would never again have to resort to war. 

The purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867 was one of 
the most important achievements of Seward's secretaryship 
The pur- ^^ state. It came as a great surprise to the public, 
chase of There was no demand for this frozen zone and the 
^ idea that it would ever be of any value was openly 

ridiculed. But Seward was the greatest of all American ex- 
pansionists. As early as 1846 he declared that our popula- 
tion was destined "to roll its resistless waves to the icy 
barriers of the North, and to encounter oriental civilization 
on the shores of the* Pacific." He also believed that we would 
expand to the South and predicted that the city of Mexico 
would be "the ultimate central seat of power of the North 
American people." 

When, therefore, he learned in 1867 that Russia was 
willing to sell her American possessions he was quick to open 
negotiations. The price finally agreed upon between him and 
Baron Stoeckl, the Russian minister, was $7,200,000. The 



Foreign Relations, 1865-1897 479 



'& 



treaty was promptly ratified by the Senate with only two dis- 
senting votes and proclaimed June 20, 1867. The House, 
which was bitterly hostile to the administration, did not so 
readily consent to vote the appropriation, but finally did so 
the following year. It was charged at the time, and later in- 
vestigations seem to confirm the charge, that a part of the 
purchase money was used in bribing members of Congress to 
vote for the appropriation. The United States thus secured 
for a trifling sum a vast area of nearly 600,000 square miles 
immensely rich in unsuspected minerals. From the fur 
seals alone the government has received double the amount 
of the purchase price. 

The experience of the navy during the Civil War demon- 
strated the importance of securing coaling stations and naval 
bases in the West Indies. The Danish Islands of 
St. Thomas, St. John, and Santa Cruz had been Sepu°r-^ 
a favorite resort for the war vessels of the United chase of the 
States, most of the other West Indian Islands ■v/g^'findies 
being favorably disposed to the Confederates. In 
December, 1865, Secretary Seward started on a cruise for 
his health, in the course of which he visited St. Thomas and 
also Santo Domingo. On his return he immediately opened 
negotiations with the Danish minister, who was authorized 
to sell the Danish group for .115,000,000. Seward thought 
this too much, but the following year a treaty was signed at 
Copenhagen by which Denmark agreed to sell two of the 
islands, St. Thomas and St. John, for $7,500,000, provided 
the inhabitants should (igree to the transfer. 

In January, 1868, a popular vote was taken, and the in- 
habitants, most of whom were English speaking, expressed 
themselves almost unanimously in favor of American annex- 
ation. The Danish Rigsdag ratified the treaty, but after a 
delay of several months the Foreign Relations Committee 
of the United States Senate reported unanimously against it 
and the matter was dropped. 



480 The New Nation 

In 1867 Seward sent Admiral Porter an(i the assistant 
secretary of state to Santo Domingo with authority to nego- 
tiate for the purchase of Samana bay and penin- 
to annex ^ sula. The faihire of the Danish treaty, however, 
Santo rendered the success of this scheme unUkely and 

omingo ^j^^ House put an end to Seward's negotiations by 
overwhelmingly voting down a resolution favoring the ad- 
mission of Santo Domingo as a territory with the consent of 
the inhabitants. General Grant, however, took the matter 
up shortly after the beginning of his administration and sent 
his secretary, Colonel Babcock, to Samana bay to report on 
its suitability for a coahng station. The president of Santo 
Domingo, finding it difficult to maintain himself in power, 
expressed his willingness to open negotiations for annexation 
and Colonel Babcock, although without diplomatic authority 
of any kind, promptly signed a treaty which he carried back 
with him to Washington. 

The cabinet received the treaty in silent amazement and 
Secretary Fish spoke of resigning, but Grant urged him not 
to do so. The president finally sent the treaty to the Senate, 
where through the influence of Sumner it was defeated, the 
vote being a tie when two thirds was necessary for ratification. 

In his message of December 5, 1870, the President again 
urged the importance of acquiring Santo Domingo, and 
Congress finally agreed to send a commission to 
between the island. The report of this commission was 
Sumner and favorable, but it was impossible to get either a 
treaty or a joint resolution through Congress. 
Sumner's speech against the scheme, which he ostentatiously 
named "Naboth's Vineyard," greatly angered Grant and was 
followed by the removal of Sumner from the chairmanship of 
the Committee on Foreign Relations and the recall of his 
friend Motley from London. The connection of this incident 
with the settlement of the "Alabama Claims" has already 
been discussed under that topic. 



Foreign Relations, 18G5-1897 481 

With the rapid increase of immigration during the two 
decades preceding the Civil War a number of cases of conflict 
arose between the American doctrine of expat ria- Expatriation 
tion and the European doctrine of perpetual alk;- and naturai- 
giance. In 1868 Congress passed an act declaring '"*^°" 
that the right of expatriation was "a natural and inherent 
right of ah people, indispensable to the enjoyment of the 
rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and di- 
recting that naturalized citizens of the United States should 
receive abroad the same protection that was afforded to na- 
tive citizens under the same circumstances. During the 
same year George Bancroft negotiated a treaty with the 
North German Confederation, which recognized the full 
effects of naturalization after a residence of five years in the 
country of adoption. During the next four j^ears similar 
treaties were negotiated with other German states and with 
Great Britain, Belgium, Norway and Sweden, Austria-Hun- 
gary, Denmark, and Ecuador. 

But troubles soon arose with those countries which re- 
quired universal military service over the case of young men 
who emigrated to America shortly before reaching the mili- 
tary age and later visited the country of their birth. In these 
controversies the United States found it impossible to uphold 
the doctrine that naturalization released a man from all ob- 
ligations to his former sovereign when he voluntarily placed 
himself again within the jurisdiction of his native state. The 
moral force of the American doctrine was further weakened 
by the acts of 1870 and 1875 restricting naturalization to 
"white" persons and persons of "African" nativity or de- 
scent. Under these laws Japanese, Chinese, and members 
of other races, not " white" or "African," have been excluded 
from American citizenship and thus denied the right to 
change their allegiance. 

Immigration to the United States prior to the Civil War 
reached its high tide in 1854 when 427,833 foreigners reached 



482 . The New Nation 

our shores. The numbers fell off greatly during the Civil 

War and it was 1873 before the figure of 1854 was again 

reached. There was a sudden rise in 1880 and by 
Immigration , , „ . . 

1882 the number of immigrants reached 788,992, a 

figure not equaled again for twenty-one years. The stream 
of immigration usually flows to the relatively prosperous 
country and its volume is a fair gauge of economic and in- 
dustrial conditions. The financial crisis of 1893 and the suc- 
ceeding years of depression caused a drop by 1898 to 229,299. 
Prior to 1880 three fourths of all persons who migrated 
to America came from the Celtic and Teutonic countries 
Efforts to ^^ northern and western Europe, mostly from the 
restrict im- United Kingdom and Germany. About 1880 the 
migration numbers from southern and eastern Europe began 
to increase and soon assumed formidable proportions. 
Owing to differences of race, religion, and standards of living, 
the new groups of immigrants were less easily assimilated 
than the old and tended to congregate in the slums of the 
larger cities, giving rise to problems that were new to Ameri- 
can experience. 

The restriction of immigration by legislation presents 
many practical difficulties. The first restrictive acts were 
directed against the Chinese, but in 1885 Congress prohibited 
the importation of laborers under contract, and various other 
acts have excluded convicts, prostitutes, lunatics, idiots, 
paupers, potygamists, and persons suffering from conta- 
gious diseases. In 1897 an act establishing a literacy test 
passed both houses of Congress, but was vetoed by Presi- 
dent Cleveland. 

With the American occupation of California Chinese la- 
borers were welcomed to our shores and they played a great 
Chinese P^rt in the development of the coast States, par- 
exclusion ticularly in building the Pacific railroads. The 
trade in coolies, a form of peonage, was prohibited by act of 
Congress in 1862. By 1880 the opposition to the Chinese on 



Foreign Relations, 1865-1897 483 

account of their lower standards of living was general among 
the other laboring classes of the United States, and a com- 
mission was sent to China to arrange for the restriction of 
Chinese immigration. The result was the treaty of 1880, 
by the terms of which the government of China consented 
to the exclusion of laborers, provided that teachers, students, 
merchants, and travelers should be allowed to come and go 
of their own free will, and that return certificates should be 
issued to laborers already in the United States for the purpose 
of allowing them to visit China. In 1882 Congress passed 
an act excluding Chinese laborers for a period of ten years. 

The alleged fraudulent transference of the return certifi- 
cates to new immigrants led Congress to suspend the privilege 
by the act of October 1, 1888, a measure which was not only 
harsh, but in violation of the treaty of 1880. In 1892 Con- 
gress passed an act extending all laws against the admission 
of Chinese for another period of ten years and requiring all 
those within the limits of the United States to procure within 
a year from the collectors of internal revenue certificates of 
residence, under penalty of deportation. In 1894 China 
again consented to the exclusion of laborers, provided return 
certificates should be issued to any laborer wishing to visit 
China who had a wife, child, or parent in the United States, 
or property therein of the value of one thousand dollars. 
The Chinese exclusion laws have been administered with 
undue severity, and overzealous officials have too frequently 
subjected Chinese gentlemen of culture and refinement to 
unnecessary hardships and indignities. 

The Civil War diverted attention from the project of 
digging the isthmian canal contemplated by the Clayton- 
Bulwer treatj^, and the construction of the Union 
Pacific Railroad rendered the enterprise for the attempt to 
time being of secondarj^ importance. Attention dig a canal 

£lt PflTlfl TTl fl. 

was, however, suddenly drawn to the subject in 

1878 by Colombia's concession of a right of way through 



484 The New Nation 

Panama to a French company under the presidency of Ferdi- 
nand de Lesseps, the builder of the Suez canal. The pros- 
pect of the speedy construction of a canal under French 
control led to a sudden and radical change of policy on the 
part of the United States. In a special message to Congress 
March 8, 1880, President Hayes declared that any canal 
connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans would be "virtu- 
ally a part of the coast-line of the United States," and must 
be under American control. 

Garfield expressed approval in his inaugural address of the 
policy of his predecessor, and Secretary Blaine soon began 

his famous correspondence with the British gov- 
modif^ Uie ernment for the purpose of securing modifications 
Clayton- of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. His ai'gument 
ta'eaTy'^ that the United States had outgrown the treaty, 

and the declaration of his successor, Mr. Freling- 
huysen, that it was really voidable at the pleasure of the 
United States, made little impression on the British govern- 
ment, which simply announced the intention of adhering to 
its rights under the treaty. President Cleveland reverted 
in 1885 to the policy outlined in the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 
and Mr. Olney declared in 1896 that the only way to modify 
the stipulations of 1850 was through a direct appeal to Great 
Britain for a reconsideration of the whole matter. Mean- 
while the failure of the French enterprise postponed the con- 
struction of the canal until after the Spanish War. 

During Blaine's short tenure of the office of secretary of 
state in 1881 he undertook to extend the influence of the 
Latin- United States in Central and South America by 

American sending out a general invitation to a conference 
relations ^^ ^^ j^^j^ ^^^ following year in Washington "for 
the purpose of considering and discussing methods of pre- 
venting war between the nations of America." The contin- 
uance of the war between Chile and Peru caused a postpone- 
ment of the plan, but in 1888 President Cleveland approved 



Foreign Relations, 1865-1897 



485 



an act of Congress providing for the International American 
Conference, which was held in Washington during the winter 
of 1889-1890. 

When the conference assembled Blaine was again secretary 
of state and presided over its opening session. The dele- 
gates declared that arbitration was "a principle of American 

international law," and 
outlined a general plan 
for the settlement of 
various classes of inter- 
national disputes, which 
their governments, how- 
ever, failed to ratify. 
The conference resulted, 
nevertheless, in the organ- 
ization a few years later 
of the Bureau of Ameri- 
can Republics, now 
housed in a beautiful 
building in .Washington, 
and in the decision to 
hold other conferences at 
convenient intervals. 

In 1891 the United 
States and Chile got into 
an ugly wran- Dispute with 
gle and were C^® 
brought to the verge of war over an attack on American 
sailors on shore leave at Valparaiso. President Balmaceda 
of Chile had tried to make himself dictator, but was over- 
thrown by the Congressional party, and some of his adherents 
sought refuge in the American legation, where they were 
harbored by minister Egan. The populace of Valparaiso re- 
sented the action of the American minister and was further 
aroused against the United States by the detention of the 




Jamk.s G. Blaine. 



486 The New Nation 

Itata, a vessel which left San Diego, California, with a cargo 
of arms for the Congressionalists. The attack upon Ameri- 
can sailors, in which some of the crew of the Baltimore were 
killed, appeared, therefore, to be due to resentment against 
the official acts of their government. After considerable 
delay President Harrison had just laid the matter before 
Congress when a belated apology from Chile arrived and war 
was averted. The charge that the United States had inter- 
fered in behalf of one of the parties in a civil strife created 
an unfavorable impression throughout Latin America and 
counteracted to a considerable extent the good effects of the 
Washington conference. 

In 1891 the chief of police in New Orleans was murdered 

by members of a secret Italian organization known as the 

Mafia. When those accused of the murder were 

Italians at acquitted by the jury, as a result, it was believed, 

^^^ of threats from other members of the societv, 

Orleans . , , mi" 

they were seized by a mob and lynched. The 

State courts failed to convict any of the lynchers and the 
Italian government indignantly demanded redress. Secre- 
tary Blaine declared that the case came within the jurisdic- 
tion of the State courts and that the United States govern- 
ment had no right to interfere. 

In the case of some Chinamen who were killed by a mob 
in Colorado about this time a similar reply was made to the 
demands of the Chinese government. Blaine's position was 
really untenable in international law. The United States 
government is responsible to the outside world for all acts 
of American officials, State or national. As a mark of dis- 
pleasure Italy withdrew her minister from Washington, but 
Congress, while disclaiming all liability, finally voted an in- 
demnity to the families of the murdered Italian citizens as 
an act of favor. 

For more than a century after the independence of the 
United States was proclaimed the highest grade in the diplo- 



Foreign Relations, 1865-1897 487 

matic service was that of minister. Ambassadors were sup- 
posed to represent the "person" of the sovereign rather than 
the state and it was not considered in accordance 
with democratic ideals to send or receive persons the dipio- 
of ambassadorial rank. The growing importance ^^^^^ 
of the United States in international affairs and 
the repeated recommendations of some of our representatives 
abroad led Congress in 1893 to authorize the higher grade, 
and Thomas F. Bayard was appointed as the first American 
ambassador to England. Our representatives to the prin- 
cipal European countries, to Mexico, Brazil, and Japan were 
subsequently raised to the new grade and the representatives 
of those countries to the United States were given correspond- 
ing rank. 

The change was made without increase of pay or allowance 
for the more expensive scale on which ambassadors are ex- 
pected to live, so that it has had the effect of restricting our 
highest diplomatic posts to men of large wealth. Notwith- 
standing this fact the change was probably inevitable and it 
has been on the whole beneficial. 

During Harrison's administration attention was drawn to 
American interests in the Pacific. In 1878 the United States 
had acquired a coaling station in the Samoan ^^lerican 
islands, and in 1889 serious trouble with Germany interests in 
arose over the attempt of that power to control ' * ® ^" '^ 
the government of the group. England also had interests 
there, and the dispute was adjusted by a treaty establishing 
a joint protectorate of the three powers over the islands. 

Early in the nineteenth century American missionaries 
and traders had gone to the Hawaiian Islands and their 
descendants, having grown wealthy and influential, favored 
annexation to the United States. In 1893 the American 
party with the connivance of the American minister and the 
aid of United States marines overthrew the reigning queen 
and established a provisional republic. A treaty providing 



488 The New Nation 

for the annexation of the islands was soon signed and sub- 
mitted by President Harrison to the Senate. Before a vote 
on the treaty was taken President Cleveland came into ofRce 
and a commission was sent to Hawaii to conduct an investi- 
gation. As a result the flag of the United States was hauled 
down and the marines withdrawn. The provisional govern- 
ment was strong enough, however, to prevent the restora- 
tion of the queen and in 1894 President Cleveland recog- 
nized the Republic of Hawaii. Annexation was, however, 
merely delayed until Dewey's victory in Manila Bay made 
it inevitable. 

During Cleveland's first administration the dispute with 
Canada over the interpretation of the treaty rights of Ameri- 
The Bering ^^^^ ^^ engage in the inshore fisheries became 
Sea con- acute and a number of American vessels were 
troversy seized for alleged violation of the treaty. England 
and the United States were unable to arrive at a satisfactory 
settlement of this question, but it was temporarily adjusted 
and the main points reserved for future arbitration. 

About the same time the controversy over the right of 
Canadians to take seals in Bering Sea threatened serious 
trouble with England. The habits of the seal are interesting 
and peculiar. During the breeding season the herds occupy 
for a period of several months islands belonging to the United 
States. When the young are strong enough to put to sea the 
herds start on the long annual voyage out into the Pacific 
to return to the same breeding grounds at the proper season. 
The United States government could regulate the catching 
of seals by its own citizens both on the islands and at sea, 
but the question arose as to its right to prevent Canadians 
from taking seals beyond the three-mile limit. In other 
words, were the seals the property of the United States and 
did the American government have a right to protect them 
on the high seas? In 188.6 some Canadian sealers were 
seized by the United States revenue cutters at a distance of 



Foreign Relations, 1865-1897 489 

more than sixty miles from land and they were condemned 
by the district court at Sitka. President Cleveland, how- 
ever, ordered their release. 

The seal question was complicated by the dispute over the 
northeastern fisheries, and Great Britain was prevented by 
the state of feehng in Canada from coming to any The fur seal 
satisfactory agreement with the United States, arbitration 
At the beginning of Harrison's administration seizures of 
Canadian sealers were renewed and Secretary Blaine under- 
took to defend the action on the ground that the indiscrimi- 
nate killing of seals in the open sea was rapidly exterminat- 
ing the herds and was therefore contra honos mores, and on 
the further ground that Russia had exercised exclusive rights 
in Bering Sea and that these rights had been ceded to the 
United States with Alaska. 

In 1892 a treaty was signed submitting the points at issue 
to arbitration. The tribunal which met in Paris the following 
year refused to recognize the claim of the United States to 
property right in the seals and declared that Bering Sea was 
a part of the high seas and not subject to the special jurisdic- 
tion of the United States. The arbitrators suggested, how- 
ever, certain regulations for the protection of the seals, which 
were put into effect by the two governments. These regula- 
tions proving inadequate, the seals were again threatened 
with extermination, and after lengthy negotiations the ques- 
tion was adjusted on a more satisfactory basis by the treaty 
of 1911, to which Russia and Japan as well as England were 
parties. 

As a result of Blaine's unsuccessful correspondence with 
England on the canal question the Monroe Doctrine had 
fallen into disrepute, when it was suddenly revived 
in a striking and sensational way by President Venezuelan 
Cleveland in the famous Venezuelan boundary con- boundary 
troversy. Venezuela had never been able to get 
England to agree on a boundary line between her territory 



490 The New Nation 

and British Guiana, and the British government had from 
time to time enlarged its claims. Venezuela repeatedly 
urged arbitration, but Great Britain refused to submit the 
question to third parties unless her claim to a large part of 
the disputed area was first recognized. 

The dispute had been going on for half a century and diplo- 
matic relations between the two countries had been severed 
when President Cleveland decided to take up the case for 
Venezuela. On July 20, 1895, Secretary Olney dispatched a 
note to the British government in which he reviewed the 
question at length, reciting the willingness of Venezuela to 
arbitrate and the refusal of Great Britain to do so. He 
claimed for the Monroe Doctrine a place in the code of in- 
ternational law as an American statement of the well-recog- 
nized right of a state to intervene in a dispute between other 
states when it considers its interests affected. He concluded 
by asserting that the United States regarded the controversy 
as one in which both its honor and its interests were involved. 
To this dispatch Lord Salisbury replied at length, refuting 
Mr. Olney's arguments and denying that the Monroe Doc- 
trine was a principle of international law. 

In a vigorous message of December 17, 1895, President 

Cleveland laid the correspondence before Congress, stating 

even more emphatically the interpretation of the 
President r- ^ r- 

cieveiand Monroe Doctrine advanced in Mr. Olney's dis- 
appeais to patch and asking for an appropriation for the ex- 
penses of a commission, to be appointed by the 
president, which should make the necessary investigation 
and report upon the true boundary with the least possible 
delay. "When such report is made and accepted," he con- 
tinued, "it will, in my opinion, be the duty of the United 
States to resist by every means in its power, as a willful 
aggression upon its rights and interests, the appropriation by 
Great Britain of any lands or the exercise of governmental 
jurisdiction over any territory which after investigation 



Foreign Relations, 1865-1897 491 

we have determined of right belongs to Venezuela." Lest 

there should be doubt as to his meaning he added, " In making 

these recommendations I am fully alive to the responsibihty 

incurred and keenly realize all the consequences that may 

follow." The public on both sides of the Atlantic was amazed 

and stunned. Without any but a few government officials 

being aware that there was any serious cause of dispute the 

two countries were suddenly brought to the verge of war. 

Congress promptly voted the appropriation and the president 

appointed the boundary commission. 

In England surprise gave way to indignation, but before 

Lord SaUsbury could decide upon a course of action public 

attention was unexpectedly drawn to another 

War averted 

quarter of the globe. Before the year was out 
Dr. Jameson made his unsuccessful raid into the Transvaal, 
and a few days later the German Emperor sent a telegram 
of congratulation to President Kruger. The wrath of Eng- 
land was diverted from America to Germany. A few days 
later Lord SaUsbury offered to place at the disposal of the 
boundary commission the British records relating to Ven- 
ezuela and Guiana, and before the report of the commission 
was completed Great Britain signed a treaty with Ven- 
ezuela submitting the case to arbitration. 

President Cleveland's message was the subject of much 
criticism' both at home and abroad, but the position which 
he took has since been approved by most American writers 
on diplomacy. It turned out to be a most opportune asser- 
tion of the intention of the United States to protect the 
American continent from the sort of exploitation to which 
Africa and Asia have fallen a prey. Cleveland's bold asser- 
tion of Americanism had a clarifying effect on relations with 
England, whose attitude has since been uniformly friendly. 
In fact, before two years had elapsed Mr. Olney signed with 
Sir Julian Pauncefote a general arbitration treaty, which, 
however, was rejected by the Senate in the closing days of 



492 The New Nation 

the Cleveland administration, partly as a result of the presi- 
dent's unpopularity. 

The Cuban question was nearly a century old when it again 
reached an acute stage toward the close of the Cleveland 
The Cuban administration. From the days of Thomas Jeffer- 
question gQ^ Americans had considered the acquisition of 
this important island highly desirable, but prior to the 
Mexican War the main object of our Cuban diplomacy was to 
prevent its acquisition by Great Britain or France. During 
this early period the United States repeatedly offered to 
guarantee Spain's possession provided she would not cede the 
island to one of the larger European powers. Lying athwart 
the Gulf of Mexico and controUing the outlet of the Missis- 
sippi Valley as well as the more important approaches to the 
proposed isthmian canal, Cuba was too important a prize 
to pass into the hands of a strong naval power. If we could 
not get it ourselves, we preferred seeing it remain in the pos- 
session of a weak power like Spain. 

Between the Mexican and Civil wars the United States 
made several unsuccessful efforts to secure the island by pur- 
chase, while Cuban "patriots" with the aid of adventuresome 
Americans made repeated efforts to annex it by means of 
fiUbustering expeditions fitted out in the United States, 
These latter were a serious strain on peaceable relations with 
Spain and war appeared several times to be imminent. 

After the Civil War the main object of American diplo- 
macy was the extension of commercial relations and the pro- 
" The Ten tection of American interests in Cuba. In 1868 
Years' a formidable insurrection against Spanish rule 

" broke out in the island coincident with the over- 

throw of the monarchy in Spain. The "Ten Years' War," 
from 1868 to 1878, during which a succession of governments 
in Spain attempted to suppress the insurgents, was charac- 
terized by great cruelty, the destruction of property, and a 
general disregard of the interests of foreigners, especially 



Foreign Relations, 18G5-1897 493 

Americans. Early in the struggle President Grant wanted 
to extend belligerent rights to the insurgents, but was pre- 
vented from doing so by Secretary Fish. 

In 1873 the Virginius, a vessel bearing the American flag 
and carrying men and military supplies for the insurgents, 
was captured on the high seas by a Spanish war vessel and 
carried into the port of Santiago, where fifty-three of the 
passengers and crew, including some British and a number 
of American citizens, were summarily executed. As neither 
Spain nor the United States had recognized the insurgents 
as belligerents, she had no right to seize the vessel outside of 
her own territorial waters, and the execution of Americans 
without the formalities of a legal trial was in open violation 
of treaty rights. The incident caused great excitement in 
the United States and for a time war seemed unavoidable, 
but the matter was finally settled by the payment of an in- 
demnity and the surrender of the captured vessel. 

The indefinite prolongation of the struggle in Cuba, the 
persistent neglect by Spain of treaty obhgations, and her 
refusal to redress grievances combined to make 

. ^ . Fish's man- 

mtervention b}^ the United States, either alone agementof 
or in combination with other powers, the only the Cuban 
solution that appeared at all feasible. In a note 
of November 5, 1875, Secretary Fish expressed himself in 
this sense to the Spanish government, and copies of the note 
were transmitted to our representatives at London, Paris, 
Berlin, Vienna, Rome, and St. Petersburg with instructions 
to sound the governments to which they were accredited with 
a view to securing their approval or cooperation. 

The move did not meet with success, the European cabi- 
nets refusing to lend any countenance to the American pro- 
posal for intervention. Reports of the negotiations got into 
the public press and Mr. Fish was severely criticized for vio- 
lating the Monroe Doctrine by consulting the powers of 
Europe on what had been uniformly considered since the days 



494 The New Nation 

of John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay as a question which 
concerned only Spain and the United States. Congress 
called for a report of the negotiations, but Mr. Fish returned 
an evasive answer, and it was twenty years before the full 
correspondence was made public. The war dragged out its 
weary course for three more years. Finally in 1878 it was 
brought to a close through the exhaustion of both parties and 
the promise of definite reforms by Spain. The reforms were, 
however, not carried out in good faith and the old policy 
of exploiting the resources of the island for the benefit of 
Spaniards was continued. 

In 1895 the last insurrection against Spanish rule in Cuba 
began, and soon developed the same features as the "Ten 
The Cuban Years' War." The pohcy of Maximo Gomez, the 
insurrection insurrectionary chief, was to fight no pitched bat- 
° ^ ^^ ties, but to keep up incessant skirmishes, to 

destroy sugar plantations and every other source of revenue, 
with the end in view of either exhausting Spain or forcing the 
intervention of the United States. With the opening of the 
second year of the struggle General Weyler arrived in Havana 
as governor and captain-general and immediately inaugu- 
rated his famous " reconcentration " poUcy. The inhabit- 
ants of the island were directed by proclamation to "recon- 
centrate themselves" within a week in the towns occupied by 
Spanish troops, under penalty, if they refused, of being 
treated as rebels. The majority of those who obeyed the 
proclamation were women and children, who, as a result 
of being cooped up in crowded villages under miserable 
sanitary conditions and without adequate food, died by the 
thousands. 

The sympathies of the American people were greatly 
aroused and strengthened the demand for intervention. 
Numbers of persons claiming American citizenship were 
thrown into prison by Weyler's orders. Some of them were 
native Americans, but the majority were Cubans who had 



Foreign Relations, 1865-1897 495 

sought naturalization in the United States in order to return 
to Cuba and claim American protection. 

The Cleveland administration found it difficult to prevent 
the insurgents from drawing arms and supplies from the 
United States. Early in the struggle the presi- Cleveland's 
dent issued a proclamation calling attention to the P°^*<^y 
insurrection and warning all persons within American juris- 
diction against committing acts unfriendly to Spain. He 
consistently refused to extend beUigerent rights to the insur- 
gents, who occupied no definite territory or seacoast and had 
no stable government. 

In February, 1896, Congress tried to force his hand by 
passing a resolution recognizing a state of war in Cuba and 
offering Spain the good offices of the United States for the 
estabUshment of Cuban independence. The president was 
not bound by this resolution and, although it passed both 
houses by overwhelming majorities, he ignored it. In his 
last annual message to Congress President Cleveland re- 
viewed the Cuban question at length and declared that, if 
the struggle continued much longer, "a situation will be 
presented in which our obligations to the sovereignty of 
Spain will be superseded by higher obligations, which we 
can hardly hesitate to recognize and discharge." 

TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. "The Alabama Claims" and the' Geneva Arbitration: 
Rhodes, History of the United States, Vol. VI, Chap. XXXVIII; 
C. F. Adams, " The Treaty of Washington," in Lee at Appomattox 
and Other Papers; F. Bancroft, William H. Seward, Vol. II, pp. 
492-500. 

2. The Purchase of Alaska: Rhodes, Vol. VI, pp. 211-213; 
Foster, Century of American Diplomacy, pp. 405-410; Bancroft, 
William H. Setoard, pp. 470-479 ; W. A. Dunning, " Paying for 
Alaska," in Political Science Quarterly, September, 1912, pp. 385-398. 

3. Attempts to Annex the Danish West Indies and Santo Do- 
mingo : Bancroft, William H. Seward, pp. 479—491; Rhodes, Vol. 



496 The New Nation 

VI, pp. 346-354 ; Andrews, Untied States in Our Own Time, pp. 
48-56. 

4. Immigration and Chinese Exclusion : Wilson, Division and 
Reunion, pp. 298-300 ; Sparks, National Development, pp. 32-34 ; 
Com.a,n, Industrial History of the United States, pp. 368-374: ; Foster, 
American Diplomacy in the Orient, Chap. VIII. 

5. The French at Panama: Sparks, Chap. XIII ; J. B. Hender- 
son, American Diplomatic Questions, pp. 137-158; Andrews, pp. 
399-404; Dewey, National Problems, pp. 117-123. 

6. The Fur Seal Dispute: Dewey, pp. 208-214; Dunning, 
British Empire and United States, pp. 285-291 ; Henderson, Amer- 
ican Diplomatic Questions, Chap. I. 

7. The Venezuelan Boundary Dispute : Dewey, pp. 304-313 ; 
Dunning, Chap. VII ; Henderson, pp. 411-446; Foster, Century 
of Arnerican Diplomacy, pp. 467-474. 

8. The Cuban Question: A. B. Hart, Foundations of American 
Foreign Policy, Chap. IV ; J. H. Latan^, Diplomatic Relations of 
the United States and Spanish America, Chap. Ill ; J. M. Callahan, 
Cuba and International Relations, Chaps. XII-XIV ; F. E. Chad- 
wiek. Relations of the United States and Spain : Diplomacy, Chaps. 
XVI-XXIII. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

After the passage of the Dingley Tariff the McKinley 
administration was occupied largely with foreign affairs. 

With the TheMcKin- 
Cuban ques- ley adminis- 
tion rapidly 
approaching a crisis John 
Sherman, the veteran 
senator from Ohio, was 
appointed secretary of 
state, not because of any 
fitness for the position, 
but in order to make a 
place in the Senate for 
Mark Hanna, McKin- 
ley's campaign manager. 
General Woodford was 
sent to Madrid to suc- 
ceed Hannis Taylor and 
the administration began 
immediately to apply 
itself to a settlement of 
the Cuban question. 
The good offices of the 
United States were again 
tendered and Spain was 




William McKinley. 



reminded of the resolution passed by Congress the year 
before and warned that Congress was soon to convene 
again. As a result of this pressure the Spanish ministry 

497 



498 The New Nation 

resigned and on October 14 the liberal ministry of Sagasta 
assumed office. Weyler was recalled and General Blanco 
appointed governor and captain-general of Cuba. The new 
ministry promised to grant autonomy to Cuba, and President 
McKinley declared in his message of December 6, 1897, his 
intention of allowing time for the new policy to be tested. 

The promise of autonomy came too late ; the Cubans would 
no longer be satisfied with anything short of independence. 
On January 13, 1898, there was serious rioting in Havana 
as a demonstration against the autonomy scheme and Consul- 
General Fitzhugh Lee told his government that he doubted 
whether Blanco could control the situation and that it might be 
necessary to send warships for the protection of Americans. 

As a result of this suggestion the United States battleship 
Maine was sent to Havana toward the last of January and 
The blowing while she was lying quietly at anchor attention 
up of the was diverted to Washington by an incident which 
^""^^ led to the retirement of the Spanish minister, 

Dupuy de Lome. On February 9 the Neio York Journal 
published in facsimile a letter from the minister to a friend 
in Cuba which severely criticized President McKinley and 
contained reflections on his character. The letter was 
genuine, though surreptitiously acquired, and there was no 
satisfactory explanation which de Lome could offer. On 
being notified that the immediate recall of the minister was 
expected, the Spanish government replied that his resignation 
had been tendered and accepted by cable. 

Before the excitement over this incident had subsided, 
the battleship Maine was suddenly blown up at her anchorage 
in Havana harbor on the night of February 15 and two of 
her officers and 258 of her crew were killed. An American 
naval court of inquiry reported after a careful examination 
of witnesses and of the wreck that the destruction of the 
ship was due to a submarine mine. A Spanish board of 
inquiry claimed in a brief report made a few days later that 



The War with Spain 499 

the explosion had occurred in the forward magazine of the 
ship. It is generally admitted that the American report 
was correct, but the responsibility for the mine has never 
been disclosed. 

Notwithstanding the demands of the "yellow" press, 
the American people displayed great self-control until the 
report of the court of inquiry was made public. £^^0! 
Then all restraint was thrown aside and the diplomatic 
country witnessed an outburst of warlike fervor ^^^° 
such as had not been seen since 1861. "Remember the 
Maine" became a watchword and the demand for war was 
overwhelming. President McKinley decided, however, be- 
fore resorting to war to make one more effort at a diplo- 
matic settlement. He proposed an armistice between Spain 
and the insurgents pending negotiations for a permanent 
adjustment through the good offices of the United States. 
The Spanish government refused to grant an immediate 
armistice, but made vague suggestions about leaving the 
pacification of the island to a Cuban parliament. 

President McKinley regarded negotiations with Spain as 
closed, and announced that he had decided to refer the whole 
question to Congress. His message was delayed a few days 
at the urgent request of Consul-General Lee in order to 
give time for Americans to get out of Cuba, and on Sunday, 
April 10, he was informed by the Spanish minister that at 
the solicitation of the Pope the queen had decided to declare 
an armistice and to call a Cuban parliament. The prom- 
ised concessions were ambiguously expressed and seemed 
too much like another play for time. The president de- 
cided, therefore, not to withhold the matter from Congress 
any longer. 

In his message of April 11 the president reviewed the 
Cuban question at length and came to the conclusion that 
forcible intervention was the only solution, and was justified 
not only on grounds of humanity, but as a measure for the 



500 The New Nation 

protection of the hves and property of American citizens, 
and for the purpose of putting a stop to a conflict which was 
a constant menace to our peace. He referred to the Maine 
only incidentally as "a patent and impressive proof of a 
state of things in Cuba that is intolerable." 

There was little doubt that a reference of the question 
to Congress meant war. The House acted with unusual 
promptness, but the Senate differed from the 
demands the House in wanfing to recognize the Cuban republic 
withdrawal as then organized. The House prevailed and on 
fromCuba April 19, the anniversary of the battle of Lex- 
ington, and of the first bloodshed of the Civil 
War on the streets of Baltimore, the fateful resolutions were 
adopted, declaring that the people of Cuba ought to be free 
and independent, demanding the immediate withdrawal 
of Spain from the island, and authorizing the president to 
use the land and naval forces of the United States and the 
militia of the several States for the purpose of carrying these 
resolutions into effect. 

Another resolution disclaimed any intention to exercise 
sovereignty or control over Cuba except for its pacification, 
and asserted that the United States would then leave the 
government and control of the island to its people. These 
resolutions were, of course, equivalent to a declaration of 
war, and as soon as they were approved by the president the 
Spanish minister asked for his passports. 

As soon as the Spanish minister withdrew from Washing- 
ton, Rear-Admiral William T. Sampson, commander of the 
The block- North Atlantic squadron, then at Key West, was 
adeofCuba ordered to blockade the northern coast of Cuba, 
while Commodore Winfield Scott Schley was stationed with 
a "flying squadron" at Hampton Roads in readiness to 
protect the American coast in case the Spanish fleet aimed 
a blow in that direction, or to join Sampson in case it ap- 
peared in the West Indies. 



The War with Spain 



501 



The heavy fighting force of the United States consisted 
of four battleships of the first class, the Indiana, Iowa, 
Massachusetts, and Oregon; one of the second class, the 
Texas; and two armored cruisers, the Brooklyn and the 
New York. Spain had five armored cruisers of greater re- 
puted speed than any of ours except the Brooklyn and the 
New York, one battleship 
of the Indiana type, and 
several destroyers, a type 
of which we had none. 
It was generally supposed 
that the Spanish navy 
was somewhat superior to 
the American. 

On April 29 Admiral 
CerV'Cra's division of the 
Spanish fleet left the Cape 
Verde Islands for the West 
Indies, but its destination 
was unknown, and there 
were many conjectures in 
the papers as to whether 
it would appear in Cuban 
waters or attack some 
unguarded point on the 
coastof the United States. 

While the American people were eagerly awaiting the 
appearance of Cervera's squadron in American waters, they 
were suddenly thrilled by the news of a great Battle of 
naval victory in Manila Bay. When war was Manila Bay 
declared Commodore George Dewey was at Hong-Kong, 
where he had collected the half dozen not very formidable 
cruisers and gunboats on the Asiatic station. Acting under 
instructions which were cabled to him from Washington, he 
set sail for Manila Bay with the purpose of capturing or 




Admiral Dewey. 



502 The New Nation 

destroying the Spanish fleet. During the night of April 30 
he entered the south channel leading into the bay and by 
daybreak was off Manila, near enough to see the shipping. 
South of his position lying eastward from Cavite the Spanish 
fleet was at anchor. With his flagship, the Olytnpia, in the 
lead Dewey closed in on the enemy and for more than two 
hours kept up a continuous fire on the Spanish ships and 
shore batteries, inflicting great damage. At 7:35 a.m. the 
American fleet stood out into the bay and the men were 
ordered to go to breakfast. Shortly after eleven the squad- 
ron returned to complete its work and in less than an hour 
and a half most of the Spanish vessels were in flames. In 
this remarkable battle the American cruisers escaped all 
but slight injury and only seven men were slightly wounded. 
On receiving the news of this victory President McKinley 
appointed Dewey rear-admiral and recommended that he 
be promoted to the grade of admiral and receive the thanks 
of Congress. 

In spite of Dewey's great victory his position was critical. 
He could have taken the city of Manila, but he did not have 
, the men to hold it and it was two months before 
critical posi- reenforcements reached him. The most serious 
tionat cause of embarrassment was the presence in 

Manila Bay of a German squadron of five war- 
vessels superior in strength to Dewey's. The German 
commander, Admiral Diederichs, displayed open sympathy 
with the Spaniards, disregarded Dewey's blockade of Ma- 
nila, and committed breaches of naval etiquette. Dewey 
finally sent his flag-lieutenant to tell him that "if he wants 
a fight he can have it right now." The friendly attitude of 
the British commander at this crisis stood Dewey in good 
stead, and Admiral Diederichs promptly disavowed the acts 
complained of. No satisfactory explanation of the German 
admiral's conduct has ever been given. 

Dewey's victory hastened the annexation of the Hawaiian 



The War with Spain 



503 



Islands. In June, 1897, President McKinley submitted to 
the Senate a treaty providing for the annexation of the 
group, but it was found impossible to secure the consent of 
two thirds of the Senators. The advocates of annexation 
then determined to gain 
their end by a joint reso- 
lution and this resolution 
was still under consid- 
eration when the war with 
Spain began. Under the 
pressure of Dewey's posi- 
tion the importance of a 
naval station in the mid- 
Pacific won over many 
of the opponents of an- 
nexation, and the joint 
resolution passed the 
House June 15 and the 
Senate July 6. 

Meanwhile important 
events were happening 
in American waters. 
Cervera's fleet was very slow in crossing the Atlantic and 
much uneasiness was felt in the United States j^Q^gj^g^ts 
as to its destination. Sampson grew restless of the 
and moved eastward to Porto Rico with a P^^rt-^tia^^tic^ 
of his fleet with the intention of intercepting 
Cervera in case he made a dash for the coast of the United 
States or of blockading him in case he put in at San Juan. 
While Sampson was off Porto Rico Cervera appeared off 
Martinique, and learning the location of the American fleet 
turned southward to Curasao. A week later he slipped 
unobserved into Santiago, Cuba. 

As soon as news of the arrival of the Spanish fleet off 
Martinique was received at the Navy Department, Schley 




William T. Sampson. 



504 The New Nation 

was dispatched with the "flying squadron" from Hampton 
Roads to Key West and Sampson was hastily recalled from 
Porto Rico. When the latter reached Key West May 18, 
he ordered Schley to proceed around the west end of Cuba 
to Cienfuegos and in case he did not find Cervera there to go 
on to Santiago. Schley arrived before Santiago on the 
26th, a week after the arrival of Cervera's fleet, but as 
the auxiliary cruisers on scouting duty before that port 
were ignorant of Cervera's arrival Schley began the much 
discussed retrograde movement to Key West. Two days 
later, after receiving dispatches from the Navy Department 
indicating that Cervera was at Santiago, he returned and es- 
tablished a blockade. Sampson arrived June 1 and assumed 
command. 

During the search for Cervera's fleet much uneasiness 
was felt for the safety of the Oregon, which left Bremerton, 
Washington, before the war was declared and was making 
the long journey around the Horn. She had been last heard 
from at Bahia, Brazil, May 9 and it was feared that she 
might encounter the whole Spanish fleet, but she turned up 
safely off the Florida coast on the 24th ready for service 
after a memorable voyage of fourteen thousand miles. 

As soon as the Spanish fleet was blockaded in Santiago 
the government decided to send a military expedition to 
The cooperate with the navy. The two hundred 

Santiago thousand volunteers who had responded to the call 
campaign ^£ ^j^^ president in May had been kept in camps 
in different parts of the country. Most of the regular in- 
fantry and cavalry, together with several volunteer regi- 
ments, had been assembled at Tampa and organized as the 
Fifth Army Corps. The preparations made for equipping 
and provisioning large bodies of men were wholly inade- 
quate. The sanitation of the camps was bad, and dysentery, 
malaria, and typhoid fever soon made their appearance. 
The administrative inefficiency of the War Department under 



The War with Spain 505 

Secretary Alger became painfully evident when the Fifth 
Army Corps was sent to Santiago. ^ 

The expedition was placed under the command of Major- 
General William R. Shafter, who was physically unfit for 
military service and unable to leave his tent durmg the 
most critical period of the campaign. The force which sailed 
from Tampa June 14 consisted of 815 officers and 16,072 
enlisted men, regulars with the exception of the Seventy- 
first New York, the Second Massachusetts, and the Inrst 
Volunteer Cavalry of " Rough Riders," organized by Leonard 
Wood and Theodore Roosevelt. On the 22d this force 
effected a landing with great difficulty, owing to the failure 
to provide wharves and launches, at Daiquiri, a point a 
few miles east of the entrance to Santiago Bay. The next 
day General Lawton advanced and seized Siboney, and on 
the 24th General Wheeler with Young's brigade defeated a 
Spanish force at La Guasima. During the next week the 
troops suffered greatly from the heavy rams, poor rations, 
and bad camp accommodations. 

On June 30 preparations were completed for an advance 
on San Juan Hill, a strategic point on the direct road to 
Santiago. Early next morning Lawton began Battle ^f_San 
an attack on El Caney, a position on the right J"^"^ 
of the American advance, expecting to carry it without much 
resistance in time to cooperate with the main movement, 
but the Spaniards developed unexpected strength at this 
point and held him in check until the late afternoon. Mean- 
while the main column had advanced slowly and with great 
difficulty through the thick brush and along the narrow 
trail leading to the San Juan blockhouse, the Spanish ar- 
tillery killing numbers of men before they could get into 
position to return the fire. 

By noon the advance had crossed the little San Juan River, 
the dismounted cavalry division under Sumner deploying 
to the right and Kent's division of infantry to the left di- 



506 



The New Nation 



rectly in front of the blockhouse. The various regiments 
and brigades were, however, in great confusion and exposed 
to a galling rifle and artillery fire. Order had to be restored 
before proceeding to the final charge. As soon as the lines 

could be re-formed the 
order to advance was 
given and the infantry 
division charged up the 
hill in the face of a de- 
structive fire and cap- 
tured the blockhouse, 
while the cavalry division 
drove the Spaniards from 
the trenches on the right. 
The Spaniards kept up 
a constant fire from the 
trenches nearer Santiago 
until noon of July 3. 
During the three days' 
fighting the American 
losses were 145 killed, 914 
wounded, and 72 missing. 
The capture of San- 
tiago now seemed to 
the Spaniards merely a 
question of a few days, 
though the Americans were by no means confident of an 
The naval early conclusion of the campaign. In fact, 
battle of Shafter was thinking of withdrawing his army 
antiago ^^ ^ safer and more sanitary position. Cervera 
finally decided, however, to go out and face destruction 
rather than to remain in Santiago Bay and surrender 
the fleet with the fall of the city. The American fleet 
had been maintaining a close blockade in expectation of 
such a decision. 




WiNFiELD Scott Schley. 



The War with Spain 507 

Sampson believed that the Spanish fleet would make the 
attempt to escape at night, and on Sunday morning, July 3, 
a little before nine o'clock he started east on his flagship to 
meet General Shafter in conference at Siboney. Forty 
minutes later the smokestacks of the enemy's ships were 
sighted slowly steaming toward the narrow mouth of the 
bay. As the American ships with one accord closed in on 
them, Cervera's flagship turned west, followed by the other 
members of the fleet. At this point, Commodore Schley's 
flagship, the Brooklyn, suddenly turned out to sea, making 
a loop across the course of the Texas, causing the latter 
to reverse her engines in order to avoid a collision. His 
object seems to have been to leave the slower Spanish vessels 
to the fire of the battleships and with the cruiser Brooklyn, 
which had greater speed, to overtake those in the lead and 
prevent the escape of a single one. In this running fight the 
Spanish ships were riddled with shells and set on fire. One 
after another ran ashore, the last one being forced by the 
Brooklyn and Oregon to beach and surrender forty-five miles 
west of where the fight began. In this remarkable battle 
there were only two casualties on the American side, one 
man killed and one wounded, both on the Brooklyn. 

Two weeks after the naval fight Santiago surrendered. 
General Miles then embarked for Porto Rico with a force 
of 16,000 men and in a two weeks' campaign over- 
ran most of that island with the loss of three killed ^^ porto ^*°° 
and forty wounded. A large number of troops Rico and the 
had also been sent to the Philippines. It was Mani[a° 
evident, therefore, that while the war had been 
undertaken for the liberation of Cuba, the United States did 
not feel under any obligation to confine its militar}^ oper- 
ations to that island. Having met all the demands of 
honor, Spain asked the French government, July 18, to 
authorize the French ambassador at Washington to arrange 
with President McKinley the preliminary terms of peace. 



508 The New Nation 

These negotiations resulted in the protocol of August 12, 
in which Spain agreed to the following demands : first, the 
immediate evacuation of Cuba and the relinquishment of 
Spanish sovereignty ; second, the cession of Porto Rico 
and one of the Ladrones by way of indemnity; and third, 
the occupation by the United States of "the city, bay, and 
harbor of Manila pending the conclusion of a treaty of 
peace which shall determine the control, disposition, and 
government of the Philippines." On the day following the 
signing of this protocol, and before the news reached the 
Philippines, American troops under General Merritt captured 
the city of Manila after a formal resistance, the governor- 
general agreeing not to use his heavy batteries provided 
Dewey would refrain from shelling the city. 

Two controversies growing out of the war with Spain 
assumed such importance that they cannot be passed by. 
The first, relating to the conduct of the War De- 
sies growing partment, was the charge made by Major-General 
out of the Miles, commanding the army, that much of the 
refrigerated beef furnished the troops was "em- 
balmed beef," preserved by secret chemicals of injurious 
character. The commission appointed to investigate the 
matter made a report which did not fully sustain the charge, 
but the report was not convincing. In the course of the 
investigation Commissary-General Eagan made such an 
abusive attack on General Miles that he was sentenced by 
a court-martial to dismissal for conduct unbecoming an 
officer and a gentleman. Some months later the president 
called for Secretary Alger's resignation and Elihu Root of 
New York was appointed secretary of war. 

The other controversy, which was waged in the papers for 
months, was as to whether Sampson or Schley was in com- 
mand at the battle of Santiago. Finally, at the request of 
Schley, a naval court of inquiry was appointed in 1901 to 
investigate charges of inefficiency and cowardice. The 



The War with Spain 509 

court expressed the opinion that his conduct prior to the 
battle of Santiago had been characterized by "vacillation, 
dilatoriness, and lack of enterprise." Admiral Dewey, a 
member of the court, differed from his colleagues, however, 
and in his opinion proceeded to discuss the question which 
was at the bottom of the whole controversy. He declared 
that at the battle of Santiago Schley "was in absolute 
command and is entitled to the credit due to such command- 
ing officer for the glorious victory which resulted in the 
total destruction of the Spanish ships." This made matters 
worse than ever. On appeal to President Roosevelt he de- 
clared that Sampson was technically in command but that 
after the battle began not a ship took orders from either 
Sampson or Schley. "It was a captains' fight." 

In pursuance of the terms of the protocol the peace com- 
missioners met at Paris October 1. An entire month was 
taken up with the Cuban question, the Spanish The treaty 
commissioners striving in vain to saddle the of peace 
Cuban debt either on the United States or on the people of 
Cuba. The discussion in regard to the Philippines occupied 
most of the next month. When President McKinley ap- 
pointed the American commissioners his mind was not fully 
made up on this important question. His first intention 
seems to have been to retain the bay and city of Manila 
as a naval base, and probably the whole of Luzon. Public 
sentiment in the United States in favor of acquiring the whole 
group made rapid headway and after an extended trip through 
the South and West, during which he sounded opinion on this 
question, the president instructed the commissioners to de- 
mand the entire group. The commissioners were later 
authorized to offer $20,000,000 for the cession. On other 
points the United States secured what had been demanded 
in the protocol, and the treaty was signed December 10, 1898. 

The treaty precipitated an earnest debate in the Senate. 
Senator Hoar declared that the proposal to acquire and 



510 The New Nation 

govern the Philippine Islands was in violation of the Decla- 
ration of Independence, the Constitution, and the whole 
spirit of American institutions. The treaty could not be 
ratified without the aid of Democrats and the result was in 
doubt when Bryan went to Washington and advised his 
friends to vote for ratification, saying that the status of the 
Philippines could be determined in the next presidential 
campaign. The outbreak of hostilities between the Fili- 
pinos and the American troops occupying Manila put an end 
to the debate and on February 5, 1899, the treaty was ratified. 

With the purchase of the Philippine Islands the United 
States assumed the task of governing 7,500,000 orientals 
jj^g ^ of alien speech and race, 600,000 of whom were 

Philippine Mohammedan Moros or members of wild pagan 
insurrection ^j-jj^gg ^pj^g civilized part of the population 
were members of the Roman Catholic Church, but 
for years there had been widespread opposition to the 
domination of the friars, who controlled most of the land, 
and latiferly a formidable insurrection against the Spanish 
government which upheld the friars. 

Aguinaldo, the youthful leader of the insurrection of 
1896, had left the islands a few months before the beginning 
of the Spanish war, and shortly after the battle of Manila 
Bay Dewey sent one of his ships to Hong-Kong to bring him 
and his staff over to assist in operations against Manila. 
When the city surrendered, Aguinaldo and his forces were 
not allowed to enter, and were forced to remain outside the 
American lines. This situation gave rise to strained rela- 
tions and when it became evident that the United States 
had no intention of recognizing a Filipino republic hostilities 
began. 

On the night of February 4, 1899, some of Aguinaldo's 
men approached the American lines without making known 
their intentions and were fired upon. The conflict soon be- 
came general and the insurrection against American control 



The War with Spain 511 

rapidly spread throughout the islands. As the Americans 
extended their lines out from Manila the main body of in- 
surgents retired northward to the great plain of central 
Luz6n. As the time of the volunteers who had enlisted 
for the Spanish war was up, operations were delayed until 
new troops could arrive. By the fall General Otis had 
over 30,000 men under his command and in October the 
forward movement began. The Filipinos were unable to 
check, except temporarily, the advancing columns t)f Gen- 
erals MacArthur, Lawton, and Wheaton and by the middle 
of November they were driven from the plain of central 
Luzon and scattered among the mountains. 

At the same time troops had been sent to the other prin- 
cipal islands and all open resistance was at an end. Con- 
trary to the belief of the Americans, however, Two years 
the Filipinos had not given up the struggle. ofguerrUia 
They had merely decided to abandon the open "^^ "® 
field and to resort to guerrilla warfare. After a period of 
inactivity, which was necessary for the redistribution of the 
insurgent forces, it became evident that the insurrection had 
merely taken on a new form. For the next two years the 
struggle was waged by the Filipinos with great cruelty, 
treachery, and ferocity, and our troops soon learned to 
retahate in kind. That murder, rape, torture, and other 
crimes were too frequently committed by American soldiers 
and by native scouts commanded by American officers was 
brought out after an exhaustive investigation by a Senate 
committee in a report of over three thousand pages. 

For more than a year after the dispersion of the Filipino 
army the whereabouts of Aguinaldo was a matter which 
greatly perplexed the American commanders. Finally, in 
February, 1901, his hiding place was revealed through 
letters intercepted by Lieutenant J. D. Taylor, and General 
Funston with a party of Macabebe scouts disguised as in- 
surgents succeeded in capturing him. Contrary to expec- 



512 The New Nation 

tations the capture of Aguinaldo had very httle effect on the 
insurrection, , which dragged on for another year and was 
finally suppressed only after the Americans adopted a rigid 
concentration policy confining the friendly inhabitants in 
the insurrectionary districts to the towns occupied by the 
troops and treating all others as enemies. 

In January, 1899, President McKinley sent a commis- 
sion headed by President Schurman of Cornell University 
to the Philippines for the purpose of assisting 
lishmerTtof ^^ ^^^^ extension of American authority through- 
civil govern- out the group. Before the members reached 
Di!r*^°,!^! Manila the insurrection broke out and there 

Pnilippines 

was httle that the commission could do beyond 

the preparation of an interesting and valuable report on the 

people, resources, and climate of the islands. 

The following year another commission headed by Judge 
WilUam H. Taft of Ohio was sent out for the purpose of 
assisting the mihtary authorities in the work of organizing 
civil government. On July 4, 1901, the civil powers hitherto 
exercised by the military governor were by the direction of 
the president vested in the head of the commission, and Judge 
Taft was inaugurated as the first civil governor. A little 
later three native Fihpinos were added to the commission. 

By act of July 1, 1902, Congress provided a permanent 
government for the islands. The action of the president 
in appointing the commission and in creating the office of 
civil governor was approved and made permanent ; the in- 
habitants of the islands were declared to be "citizens of 
the Philippine Islands, and as such entitled to the protec- 
tion of the United States"; and certain provisions of the 
Constitution of the United States guaranteeing life, liberty, 
and property, were extended to the Filipinos. The act 
further provided for the ultimate creation of a legislative 
assembly, with the Philippine Commission as the upper 
house. Such an assembly was organized in 1907. As the 



The War with Spain 513 

members of the commission and upper house are appointed 
by the president with the consent of the Senate, the Fili- 
pinos have a very small measure of control over their own 
affairs and still demand autonomy or complete independence. 

The annexation of Porto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philip- 
pines raised questions new to the Constitution and to Amer- 
ican experience, which called for new solutions. The status 
President McKinley took the view that the Con- of depend- 
stitution and laws of the United States did not ®""®^ 
apply to newly acquired territory until extended by Congress ; 
while Congress later assumed that in legislating for the new 
possessions it was not bound by all of the provisions of the 
Constitution. After two years of popular discussion as to 
whether "the Constitution followed the flag" the Supreme 
Court sustained the positions taken by the president and 
by Congress. In the famous "Insular Cases" five of the 
nine justices held that the new dependencies were not a 
part of the United States within the meaning of that clause 
of the Constitution which requires that all duties shall be 
uniform throughout the United States. 

By act of April 30, 1900, the Hawaiian Islands were fully 
incorporated in the United States and given a form of ter- 
ritorial government like that of Arizona and New Mexico. 
By the Porto Rican act passed about the same time tariff 
duties were imposed on commerce between that island and 
the United States for a period of two years. The form of 
government prescribed for Porto Rico was of the same gen- 
eral type as that provided for the Philippines. Most of the 
real power is in the hands of a governor and executive coun- 
cil appointed by the president with the consent of the Senate. 
The dissatisfaction with the form of government has been 
largely overcome by the prosperity which the islanders 
have enjoyed under free trade with the United States. 

At the time that the United States went to war with 
Spain China seemed on the point of being partitioned out 



514 The New Nation 

among the powers of Europe. In November, 1897, Germany 
established herself at Kiao-chau ; in March, 1898, Russia 
The threat- P^'o^ured from China a lease of Port Arthur ; and 
ened parti- a little later England secured "Weihai-wei. In 
tiono na addition to cessions of territory these powers 
acquired extensive concessions for the construction of rail- 
ways and exclusive mining privileges in their respective 
"spheres of influence," in utter disregard of China's treaty 
obligations to other nations. 

The movement for the partition of China was well under 
way when the Philippine Islands came within the grasp of 
the United States, and the idea that they would afford a 
naval base for the protection of American rights in China 
undoubtedly influenced President McKinley in coming to 
the decision to retain them. 

The commerce of the United States with China at this 
time was second to that of England alone, and the govem- 
Theopen- ment did not reUsh the idea of being excluded 
door policy from the Chinese market, so John Hay as secre- 
tary of state made a clever diplomatic move, with the back- 
ing of England and Japan, to check the aggressions of Russia 
and Germany. In a note of September 6, 1899, he addressed 
the principal European powers and Japan on the subject of 
the "open door" in China, requesting each of them to make 
a formal declaration to the effect, (1) that it would not in- 
terfere with the vested interests of other powers in its sphere 
of influence, (2) that the existing Chinese tariff should con- 
tinue in force and be collected by Chinese officials, and (3) 
that foreigners should not be discriminated against in the 
matter of port dues and railroad rates. 

England and Japan were willing to bind themselves to 
this policy, but the other powers, while protesting in a 
general way their adherence to the principle, avoided making 
a formal declaration in the sense requested by Secretary 
Hay. Although not wholly successful, the move came at 



The War with Spain 515 

an opportune time and had a good effect. Later, however, 
Hay had to ask permission of Russia to send American 
consuls into Manchuria, which we regarded as Chinese terri- 
tory. 

The rapid exploitation of China naturally aroused a 
strong anti-foreign sentiment, and an organization formed 
ostensibly for the practice of athletics and known T^e Boxer 
as the Society of Boxers 'f)egan an indiscriminate movement 
attack on foreigners. The movement was secretly ^° ^^°* 
encouraged by the Empress Dowager and in many cases 
imperial troops united with the Boxers. Numbers of for- 
eigners were murdered and by May, 1900, the situation of 
the foreign legations had become critical. About June 1 
three hundred and fifty guards from foreign vessels suc- 
ceeded in getting through to Peking, but the larger de- 
tachments which were to follow a few days later were 
defeated and driven back. 

On June 20 Baron von Ketteler, the German minister, 
was murdered on his way to keep an appointment at the 
foreign office and from that date until August 14 the lega- 
tions were closely besieged by a half-disciplined army of 
Boxers and imperial troops. The foreign powers decided 
to send an army to Peking to release their ministers, if alive, 
or avenge them, if dead. This expedition, in which 2500 
American infantry and a troop of cavalry participated, had 
to fight its way slowly to the Chinese capital, which it reached 
August 14, bringing dehverance to the diplomats and mis- 
sionaries, who, by fortifying themselves in the British lega- 
tion, had with difficulty held back their assailants. 

The Chinese government was compelled by the powers to 
put to death guilty officials and to pay an indemnity of 
over S300,000,000. The portion assigned to the United 
States, $24,000,000, was found to be greatly in excess of the 
claims for injuries sustained and over half of it was returned 
by the United States to China. The Chinese government 



516 The New Nation 

showed its gratitude by setting this sum aside as a fund 
for the education of Chinese students in America. 

The war with Spain introduced a new era in American 
diplomacy. While the United States has always been a 
. . world power in the sense that it has been the 

A new era m '^ 

American great exponent of civil liberty and a stanch 
diplomacy upholder of legality in international relations, 
the events of 1898 brought the American government into 
more vital contact with some of the great problems of world 
poUtics. The acquisition of the Philippines, the dispatch 
of troops to China, and the appointment of delegates to 
the Hague Conference of 1899 caused serious misgivings in 
the minds of those who were wedded to the old order. 

The Hague treaty estabhshing the permanent court of 
arbitration was, however, signed by the American delegates 
under the reservation of a formal declaration to the effect 
that it would not require the United States to depart from 
its traditional pohcy in regard to questions that were Euro- 
pean on the one hand or purely American on the other. 
An active participation in affairs of general international 
interest did not lead to any weakening of the Monroe Doc- 
trine. In fact, that principle of our foreign policy has 
been more frequently and broadly asserted since the Spanish 
"War than ever before. 

The so-called imperialistic policies of the Republican 
party had encountered bitter opposition and it was generally 
The election believed that the campaign of 1900 would be 
of 1900 fought squarely on this issue. The RepubHcan 

convention met in Philadelphia in June, nominated Mc- 
Kinley and Roosevelt, and indorsed all that the RepubHcan 
administration had done. The Democratic convention, 
which met at Kansas City July 4, declared imperialism to 
be the paramount issue, but it nominated Bryan for the presi- 
dency and reaffirmed the faith of the party in the free 
coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. Bryan was also 



The War with Spain 517 

nominated by the fusion wing of the PopuUst party and 
by the Silver RepubHeans. 

Mark Hanna again conducted McKinley's campaign with 
characteristic cleverness, making use of the "full dinner- 
pail" as an emblem of "McKinley prosperity." The presi- 
dent remained at home and took little part in the canvass, 
while Bryan pursued his familiar method of traveUng over 
the country and personally addressing hundreds of thou- 
sands of voters. But his record as a speech-maker was 
rivaled in this campaign- by Theodore Roosevelt, who was 
determined not to be submerged by the vice-presidential 
nomination which had been forced upon him against his will. 
He made a tour through the Northern and Western States, 
attra(5ting large crowds and creating enthusiasm by his ag- 
gressive manner of handling poHtical issues. The campaign 
was, however, less exciting than that of 1896. Many 
Repubhcans were opposed to imperialism and lukewarm in 
their support of McKinley, while many Democrats refrained 
from voting for Bryan on account of their opposition to the 
free coinage of silver. McKinley carried all of the Northern 
and most of the Western States and had a majority of 137 
votes in the electoral college. 

President McKinley was inaugurated for his second 
term March 4, 1901, but on September 6, while attending 
the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, he was 
shot by an anarchist, and died on the 14th of Death of 

. . McKinley 

the same month, being the third president of the and succes- 
United States to fall by the hand of an assassin, sion of 
He had enjoyed great popularity as president 
and his death was universally regretted. 

Theodore Roosevelt, who was thus unexpectedly called 
to the presidency, was the most energetic and aggressive 
character that had occupied that high position. In spite 
of his declaration on taking the oath of office that he would 
"continue absolutely unbroken the policy of President 



518 The New Nation 

McKinley," his attitude from the first was that of aggres- 
sive leadership, and during the next three years he broke 
many of the precedents of our political history. Probably 
no man in American public life had ever succeeded in keeping 
himself so constantly before the people, either in cartoon and 
caricature, or in photographs and sketches in the papers and 
magazines. His popularity soon became the despair and 
confusion of the Republican machine and of the Democrats 
alike. He had the enthusiasm and idealism of the reformer 
combined with unusual political astuteness, and whatever 
people might think of his poHcies his handUng of public 
questions never failed to provoke discussion, which is the 
life of democracy. 

TOPICAL REFERENCES 

1. The Spanish War : Woodrow Wilson, History of the American 
People, Vol. V, pp. 269-300; E. B. Andrews, United States in Our 
Own Time, Chap. XXVII ; J. H. Latane, America as a World Power, 
Chaps. I-IV; F. E. Chadwick, Spanish- American War; H. H. 
Sargent, Campaign of Santiago de Cuba; A. T. Mahan, Lessons 
of War with Spain; J. D. Long, New American Navy; W. S. 
Schley, Forty-Five Years under the Flag ; R. D. Evans, A Sailor's 
Log; T. Roosevelt, Rough Riders; C. S. Oleott, Life of William 
McKinley, Vol. II, Chaps. XXIV-XXVIII ; W. R. Thayer, Life 
of John Hay, Vol. II, Chap. XXIII ; T. Roosevelt, Autobiography, 
Chap. VII. 

2. The Philippines and Other Dependencies : Andrews, United 
States in Our Own Time, Chap. XXVIII ; J. H. Latane, America 
as a World Power, Chaps. V, VIII-X ; C. A. Beard, Contemporary 
American History, Chap. VIII; A. C. CooUdge, United States as 
a World Power, Chaps. VII-IX ; J. W. Foster, American Diplo- 
macy in the Orient, Chaps. XI-XIII ; C. S. Oleott, Life of William 
McKinley, Vol. II, Chaps. XXIX, XXX; G. F. Hoar, Auto- 
biography, Vol. II, Chap. XXXIII ; W. F. Willoughby, Territories 
and Dependencies of the United States ; J. G. Schurman, Philippine 
Affairs; H. P. Willis, Our Philippine Problem; D. C. Worcester, 
Philippine Islands and Their People; W. C. Forbes, Decade of 
American Rule in the Philippines; C. B. Elliott, The Philippine 
Islands, 2 Vols. 



The War with Spain 519 

3. The Threatened Partition of China and the Open-Door 
Policy: J. W. Foster, American Diplomacy in the Orient, Chap. 
XIII; J. H. Latane, America as a World Power, Chap. VI; A. C. 
Coolidge, United States as a World Power, Chaps. XVII, XVIII; 
P. S. Reinseh, World Politics; C. S. Conant, United States in the 
Orient; A. H. Smith, China in Convulsion; B. L. P. Weale, Re- 
shaping of the Far East ; T. F. Millard, The New Far East; A. S. 
Daggett, America in the China Relief Expedition. 



CHAPTER XXIX 
AMERICA AS A WORLD POWER 

While foreign affairs claimed a larger share of public 
attention during Roosevelt's first administration than ever 
before, there was a notable revival of interest in 
&s^^ad- ^ ^^^^ problems of labor and capital which the war 
ministration with Spain had temporarily thrown into the back- 
ground. 

The president astonished the country by intervening in 
a great coal strike; he alarmed the capitalistic classes by 
beginning an attack on trusts ; he disconcerted the poli- 
ticians by pushing forward the investigation of extensive 
public land and postal frauds, which resulted in the criminal 
conviction of two United States senators ; he antagonized 
the South by inviting Booker Washington, the negro head 
of Tuskegee Institute, to his table at the White House and 
by appointing a negro postmistress in Mississippi and a 
negro collector at Charleston ; these and many other acts 
were bitterly assailed, but public sentiment in the main 
sustained the president. Roosevelt introduced a new 
epoch in American politics. His appeal was always to 
the moral sense of the average American and he showed 
little regard for special interests, classes, or sections. 

The general prosperity of the country during McKinley's 
administration and the rapid accumulation of capital greatly 
The growth accelerated industrial combinations. The trust 
of trusts movement dated back to 1882 when the Standard 
Oil Company was formed by placing the control of a num- 
ber of separate companies dominated by the Rockefeller 
interests in the hands of a single board of trustees. This 

520 



America as a World Power 



521 



method of cooperation for the suppression of competition 
was extended to the production of sugar, tobacco, and 
various other articles of consumption, as well as to the 
management of railroad and steamship lines. 

In 1901 the most gigantic of all combinations was formed 
when the United States Steel Corporation, organized under 
a New Jersey charter, 
purchased the stock of 
eleven great companies 
which had control of three 
fourths 'of the steel indus- 
try, thus bringing under 
one management capital 
aggregating $1,100,000,- 
000. In his first annual 
message to Congress 
President Roosevelt be- 
gan an attack on trusts 
and large aggregations of 
capital and followed it up 
by the successful prosecu- 
tion of the Northern Se- 
curities Company in 1903. 
In this case a corporation 
organized under the laws 
of New Jersey by James 
J. Hill and J. P. Morgan, 
for the purpose of holding a majority of the stock of the Great 
Northern and the Northern Pacific railroads, was dissolved 
by the Federal courts as a violation of the Sherman anti- 
trust law of 1890. The dissolution of the holding company 
failed, it is true, to restore competition between the roads, 
but it convinced the people that competition could no 
longer be relied on to regulate rates, and that governmental 
control of some kind was necessary. 




Theodore Roosevelt. 



522 The New Nation 

In May, 1902, the miners in the anthracite coal region of 
Pennsylvania went on a strike to secure an increase in wages, 
Theanthra- ^ decrease in the hours of work, and the recogni- 
cite coal tion of their union. The strike involved 147,000 
^t'^® workmen, lasted five months, and caused a general 

coal famine throughout the country. In October President 
Roosevelt invited John Mitchell, the head of the United 
Mine Workers of America, and the presidents of the coal- 
carrying railroads, which constituted the coal trust, to a 
conference at the White House. Mitchell offered to submit 
the miners' claims to an arbitration commission appointed 
by the president, but the railroad presidents flatly rejected 
this proposal and urged that Federal troops be sent into the 
coal fields. 

Meanwhile the president was being severely criticized for 
taking action in a matter deemed wholly beyond his con- 
stitutional functions and for encouraging the miners by 
recognizing their union. As a last resort, he hurriedly 
sent for J. P. Morgan, the financial backer of the coal trust, 
and persuaded him to bring the railroad presidents to terms. 
They were forced to accept arbitration, the men at once 
returned to the mines and relieved the famine, and five 
months later the commission, after careful investigation, 
made a report which was decidedly favorable to the miners. 

When Congress demanded the withdrawal of Spain from 
Cuba in 1898, it was with the declaration that "The United 
American States hereby disclaims any disposition or inten- 
occupation tion to cxcrcise sovereignty, jurisdiction or control 
of Cuba ^^g^ g.^-^ island except for the pacification thereof, 
and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to 
leave the government and control of the island with its 
people." Never has a pledge made by a nation under such 
circumstances been more faithfully carried out. 

The administration of Cuba during the period of American 
military occupation was a model of its kind. General 



America as a World Power 523 

Leonard Wood, the military governor, and his associates 
found things in utter confusion in most parts of the island. 
They established order, relieved distress, organized hospitals 
and charitable institutions, undertook extensive public works, 
reorganized the system of pubHc schools, and put Havana, 
Santiago, and other cities in first-class sanitary condition. 
The discovery by Major Walter Reed, a surgeon in the 
United States army, of the fact that yellow fever is trans- 
mitted by the bite of a mosquito is regarded as one of the 
great achievements of modern medical science. This dis- 
covery was at once put to the test in Havana, with the 
result that the city was rendered free from yellow fever 
for the first time in one hundred and forty years. Mean- 
while General Wood had summoned a constitutional con- 
vention, which in February, 1901, adopted a constitution 
modeled in general after that of the United States. 

The new constitution failed, however, to define the future 
relations of Cuba with the United States. This subject was 
brought to the attention of the convention by General Wood, 
but no action was taken. The United States, however, had 
no intention of withdrawing from the island until a definite 
understanding on this vital point was reached. 

A provision, known as the Piatt Amendment, was there- 
fore inserted in the army appropriation bill of March 2, 
1901, directing the president to leave the con- The Piatt 
trol of the island to its people so soon as a gov- amendment 
ernment should be established under a constitution which 
guaranteed, (1) that the government of Cuba would never 
make any treaty impairing the independence of the island, 
(2) that it would never contract any debt which could not be 
met by the ordinary revenues, (3) that the United States 
should have the right to intervene for the protection of Cuban 
independence and the maintenance of a stable government, 
(4) that the acts of the military government during the 
period of American occupation should be ratified, (5) that 



524 



The Now Nation 



the government of Cuba would continue to carry out the 
measures adopted for the sanitation of the cities, and (6) that 
the United States should bo granted naval stations in Cuba. 

These provisions were finally agreed to and added as an 
appendix to the Cuban constitution. They were also em- 
bodied in a treaty with the United States. The Piatt 
Amendment was drafted by Secretary Root shortly before 
the close of McKinley's administration and carefully con- 
sidered by the cabinet before l)eing iniposcul upon Cuba. 
It established a formal protec- 
torates and converted American 
policy into law. 

On May 20, 1902, Tomas Es- 
trada Palma was inaugiu'ated as 
The Cuban hist president of ( \ihii 
repubUc .^1^1 General Wood 
handed over the governnunit of 
the island to him. No under- 
standing was reached before the 
withdrawal of American troops 
on the subject of commercial 
relations between Cuba and ih(> 
United States. It was of vital 
importancie to the Cubans to 
have their sugar, the principal 

product of the island, admitted to the American market 
on special terms. Otherwise it could not compete with 
the bounty-fed beet sugar of Europe, or with the sugar of 
Porto Rico and Hawaii, now admitted free. 

President Roosevelt urged Congress to authorize a reci- 
procity agreement admitting Cuban sugar at a reduced 
rate, but his efforts to do justice to Cuba were thwarted 
for two years by the beet-sugar interests of the Northwest 
and the cane sugar growers of Louisiana. The cause of 
Cuban reciprocity was delayed rather than helped by the 




Elihu Root. 



America as a World Power 5^5 

active support of the American Sugar Refining Company, 
known as the "Sugar Trust," which wanted all the raw 
sugar it could get, and therefore favored the president's policy. 

Under the reciprocity treaty which finally became law 
in December, 1903, trade with the United States rapidly 
increased, but the Cubans had not learned the primary 
lesson of democracy — submission to the will of the ma- 
jority. Shortly after the reelection of President Palma in 
1906 a serious insurrectionary movement began which 
had for its object the overthrow of his government. The 
United States finally had to send troops to Cuba and pro- 
claim a provisional government. The second period of 
American occupation lasted a little over two years, when 
the control of the government was again restored to the 
people of the island with the warning from President Roose- 
velt that it was "absolutely out of the question that the 
island should continue independent" if the "insurrectionary 
habit" should become "confirmed." 

In December, 1902, Germany, England, and Italy block- 
aded the coast of Venezuela for the purpose of forcing the 
government of President Castro to pay interest 
on bonds and other debts due their subjects. Doctrine 

Through the mediation of the American minister, p"* *° ^^^ 

. test 

Herbert W. Bowen, Venezuela agreed to submit 
the claims to arbitration, and this proposal was accepted 
by England and Italy. Germany, however, refused to 
arbitrate until President Roosevelt threatened to send the 
entire Atlantic fleet, which had been collected at Porto 
Rico under Admiral Dewey, to Venezuela to prevent any 
further action by the German navy. As soon as Germany 
was convinced that the United States would fight to main- 
tain the Monroe Doctrine, she agreed to arbitrate, being 
influenced, no doubt, by the fact that England was satisfied 
with the recognition of her claims and showed no desire to 
push matters further. 



5^6 The New Nation 

President Roosevelt's experience in the Venezuelan affair 
led him to the conclusion that if the United States wished 
The big- ^^ prevent European intervention in Latin-Amer- 
stick poUcy ican states, it must make those states behave 
themselves. In his annual message of December 6, 1904, 
he announced his new policy to the world in these words : 
"Any country whose people conduct themselves well can 
count upon our hearty friendship. If a nation shows that 
it knows how to act with reasonable efficiency and decency 
in social and political matters, if it keeps order and pays its 
obligations, it need fear no interference from the United 
States. Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which re- 
sults in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, 
may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require interven- 
tion by some civilized nation, and, in the western hemi- 
sphere, the adherence of the United States to the Monroe 
Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, 
in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence to the 
exercise of an international police power." This announce- 
ment of what became popularly known as the "big-stick" 
policy raised a storm of criticism and ridicule both at home 
and abroad, but the president was about to give the world 
an example of its practical application. 

For several months prior to the above announcement, it 
had been evident that the Dominican Republic was hope- 
lessly bankrupt. Certain European powers were 
supervision discussing the question of seizing the custom- 
of the houses and paying the interest due their subjects. 

ReMiWk^" In order to prevent what, in view of the enormous 
size of the debt, promised to be the occupation 
of American territory by European powers for an indefinite 
period. President Roosevelt proposed that the United 
States should take charge of Dominican customs. In 
February, 1905, a treaty was concluded with the Dominican 
Republic by which it was agreed that a receiver of customs 




1 scaieoFMiLts, 

5 10 79°'30'W 



if Naval Base leased from Nicaragua 
b\' treaty in 191l> 
( Fonseca Bay) 

4*»*»Canal Koute f;ranted by Nicaragua 
to l'. S. by treaty in 191B 



',10° I.ongitiule 



America as a World Power 527 

appointed by the president of the United States and backed 
by the American navy should administer the finances of 
the repubhc, using a certain percentage of the customs 
receipts to meet the foreign obhgations and setting aside a 
certain percentage for the support of the government. 

The president's poHcy met with determined opposition 
in the Senate, but he persisted in his course and finally 
carried his point. American supervision of Dominican 
customs proved so successful that President Taft negotiated 
treaties extending the same sort of financial supervision to 
Nicaragua and Honduras, which the Senate, however, 
refused to ratify, and President Wilson carried the same 
policy much further in the treaty with Hayti, which was 
ratified in 1916. 

The United States not only took a prominent part in 
establishing the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the 
Hague, but had the honor of appearing before it xhe Hague 
in 1902 as the first litigant in the case of the United c°"^ 
States V. Mexico in the matter of the Pious Fund of the 
Calif ornias. This case involved a trust fund raised by the 
Jesuits in the seventeenth century for the conversion of the 
California Indians. After the purchase of Upper California 
by the United States in 1848, the Mexican government as 
administrator of the fund refused to pay any part of it to 
the Catholic bishops of that State. The Hague Court 
decided that they were entitled to their share, confirming 
a decision rendered by a mixed commission in 1868. To 
President Roosevelt was also due the submission of the 
second case to the Hague Court, for he suggested that 
tribunal as the proper body to decide an important ques- 
tion arising out of the intervention of Germany, England, 
and Italy in Venezuela in 1902. 

The Hague Convention did not bind any power to submit 
any dispute to arbitration. Resort to the court was purely 
optional, but in 1903 and 1904 a number of European powers 



528 The New Nation 

concluded treaties binding each other to submit to arbitra- 
tion disputes involving points of law or the interpretation 
of treaties. Secretary Hay negotiated similar treaties 
with France, England, Germany, and a number of other 
powers, but the Senate amended them in such a way as 
to prevent the president from submitting any dispute to 
arbitration without the consent of that body. President 
Roosevelt regarded this action as nullifying the compulsory 
feature of the treaties and did not refer them back to the 
other powers. The second Peace Conference, which met 
at the Hague in 1907 and laid before the powers important 
codifications of international law, was proposed by President 
Roosevelt, though the call was actually issued by the Czar 
of Russia, who had called the first conference. 

The discovery of gold in the Klondike in 1897 led to a 
serious dispute between American and Canadian officials 
The Alaskan ^^^^ ^^^ Alaskan boundary, a large part of which 
boundary had never been surveyed. The shortest and 
ispute quickest route to the gold-bearing region was by 

trails leading up from Dyea and Skagway on the headwaters 
of Lynn Canal. These and other hitherto insignificant 
points soon became important places and were claimed by 
the Canadians. The Anglo-American joint high commis- 
sion which met at Quebec in 1898 failed to arrive at an 
agreement on this question and the American government 
became aware for the first time of the sweeping character 
of the Canadian claims. The question hinged on the in- 
terpretation of the Anglo-Russian treaty of 1825, for the 
United States acquired in 1867 whatever rights were con- 
firmed to Russia by that treaty. 

While the language of the Anglo-Russian treaty was 
vague and indefinite, the United States claimed that the 
intention of the treaty was to give Russia a long strip of 
land wide enough to cover the heads of all bays, inlets, and 
arms of the sea, and to shut England out from deep water 



America as a World Power 529 

north of parallel fifty-four forty. In fact, the correspondence 
of the British negotiator in 1825 shows that he tried to secure 
a deep-water outlet and failed. 

President Roosevelt was not willing to arbitrate in the 
ordinary way rights which seemed so clear. He agreed, 
however, to submit the question to a commission composed 
of three Americans, two Canadians, and Lord Alverstone, 
chief justice of England. If Lord Alverstone decided with 
the American members of the commission, the United States 
would win ; if he decided with the Canadians there would 
be no decision. He did decide with the Americans and the 
two Canadians dissented. The deep-water outlets were all 
awarded to the United States, though the boundary line was 
drawn nearer to the coast than the Americans had claimed. 
The Canadians were much disappointed and it was charged 
that Lord Alverstone had sacrificed their interests in order 
to advance the British policy of friendly relations with the 
United States. 

The storm center of Roosevelt's first administration was 
the Panama Canal. The voyage of the Oregon around the 
Horn during the war with Spain impressed upon ^j^^ jj 
the American people, as nothing else could do, the Pauncefote 
importance of an isthmian canal from a naval *^®^*y 
point of view. When President McKinley, at the close of 
the war, applied himself to the question, his first task was to 
secure a modification of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. Lord 
Pauncefote, the British ambassador, met Secretary Hay 
halfway in his negotiations, and a treaty signed February 5, 
1900, authorized the United States to construct and assume 
the management of the canal, either directly or through a 
company, but retained the principle of neutralization and 
adopted a set of rules which were substantially the same as 
those of the Constantinople Convention governing the Suez 
Canal. This treaty was so amended by the United States 
Senate as to render it unaeceptable to the British government. 



530 ' The New Nation 

After the lapse of a year a new agreement was submitted 
to the Senate by President Roosevelt and ratified De- 
cember 16, 1901. The new Hay-Pauncefote treaty abro- 
gated in express terms the Clayton-Bulwer convention 
and provided that the United States might construct a 
canal under its direct auspices to be under its exclusive 
management. The principle of neutralization was nominally 
retained, but under the sole guarantee of the United States 
with power to police the canal, and the clause of the first 
draft forbidding fortifications was omitted. 

The next question to be determined was the choice of a 
route. American engineers had almost all favored the 
The choice Nicaragua route and a commission headed by 
of a canal Admiral John G. Walker, after a series of inves- 
^°^ ® tigations covering two years and costing over 

$1,000,000, reported November 16, 1901, in favor of that 
route. On January 9, 1902, the Hepburn Bill providing 
for the construction of a canal through Nicaragua passed 
the House by the almost unanimous vote of 308 to 2. 

The report of the commission had meanwhile created a 
crisis in the affairs of the New Panama Canal Company of 
France, whose property and interests on the isthmus, which 
it estimated at $109,000,000, would be worthless unless it 
could sell out to the United States. Early in January the 
French company made by cable an offer to sell at $40,000,000 
and on January 18 the Walker commission revised its report 
and recommended to the president the adoption of the 
Panama route instead of that through Nicaragua. 

Under these circumstances, instead of passing the Hepburn 
Bill, the Senate adopted the Spooner amendment, which 
directed the president to acquire the rights and property 
of the Panama Canal Company at a cost not exceeding 
$40,000,000 ; to acquire from the Republic of Colombia the 
right of way through Panama ; and as soon as these rights 
were acquired to proceed to construct a canal; but should 



America as a World Power 531 

he be unable to secure a satisfactory title to the property 
of the French company, and the necessary right of way from 
Colombia "within a reasonable time and upon reasonable 
terms," then he was instructed to secure a right of way 
through Nicaragua and to proceed to build a canal at that 

point. 

The House finally concurred in the Spooner amendment, 
Attorney-General Knox reported that the French company 
could give a clear title, and on January 22, 1903, The Panama 
Secretary Hay signed with Mr. Herran, the Colom- revolution 
bian representative in Washington, a treaty by the terms of 
which the United States agreed to pay Colombia $10,000,000 
cash and an annuity of $250,000 for the lease of a strip of 
land six miles wide across the isthmus. This treaty was 
ratified by the United States Senate, but rejected by the 
Colombian Senate, August 12, 1903, by unanimous vote. 

The advocates of the Nicaragua route now began to take 
courage and to demand that, as "the reasonable time" 
allowed in the Spooner act for the president to acquire a 
right of way through Panama had expired, it was his duty 
to turn to Nicaragua. Had things continued in this situa- 
tion until the meeting of Congress in December, President 
Roosevelt would undoubtedly have been forced to adopt 
the Nicaragua route ; this he was determined not to do. 

On November 3 the people of Panama rose in revolt against 
Colombia and declared themselves independent. United 
States marines were immediately landed on the isthmus 
with instructions from the president to prevent the landing 
of Colombian troops within fifty miles of Panama. About 
a week later the Republic of Panama was formally recognized 
as an independent state. 

Such hasty recognition of a new republic was without 
precedent in the annals of American diplomacy and naturally 
confirmed the rumors that the whole affair had been prear- 
ranged. The president promptly negotiated a treaty with 



532 The New Nation 

the Panama Republic by which the United States agreed 
to pay $10,000,000 and an annual sum of $250,000 for the 
Anaccom- lease of a zone of land ten miles wide across 
pUshedfact ^he isthmus. In submitting this treaty to the 
Senate the president declared, in justification of his course, 
that Colombia was not entitled "to bar the transit of the 
world's traffic across the isthmus" and that the intervention 
of the United States was justified by our rights under the 
treaty of 1846, by our national interests, and by the interests 
of collective civilization. 

Several years later Mr. Roosevelt, in a public speech, said : 
"If I had followed traditional conservative methods I 
should have submitted a dignified state paper of probably 
two hundred pages to the Congress and the debate would 
be going on yet, but I took the Canal zone and let Congress 
debate, and while the debate goes on the canal does also." 
The Panama episode created strained relations with Colombia 
and made a bad impression throughout Latin-America. 
The United States has since been eyed with suspicion by its 
weaker southern neighbors. The construction of the canal 
was finally placed in the hands of General Goethals and a 
corps of army engineers, and it was opened to commerce 
August 15, 1914, though it was not completed at that time 
and traffic was subsequently interrupted by landslides. 

Although President Roosevelt was immensely popular 
with the rank and file of his party, the Republican leaders 
The election would have been glad to nominate some one else 
of 1904 if i\iey had dared to do so. After the death of 

Senator Hanna in February, 1904, there was no remaining 
thought of opposition and the Republican National Conven- ^ 
tion, which met at Chicago in June, unanimously nominated 
Roosevelt. The party platform contained nothing new or 
startling, but challenged a vote of confidence from the 
people upon Roosevelt's record. 

The Democratic Convention, which met at St. Louis in 



America as a World Power 533 

July, was dominated by David B. Hill and the advocates 
of a return to "safe and sane democracy." Judge Alton B. 
Parker, of New York, was tendered the nomination. As 
the Democratic platform was silent on the money question, 
Judge Parker declared in a telegram to the convention that 
he regarded the gold standard as firmly and irrevocably 
established, and if his view should prove to be unsatisfactory 
to the majority he should have to decline the nomination. 
On receipt of this telegram there was great excitement and 
futile talk of revising the platform or of choosing another 
candidate. Judge Parker proved to be a man of good sense, 
but thoroughly conservative and without initiative when 
aggressive leadership was needed. 

Toward the close of the campaign Parker made several 
speeches in New York, in which he called attention to the 
fact that Cortelyou had resigned the position as secretary 
of commerce and labor in order to become chairman of 
the Republican campaign committee, and he charged that 
he was using information he had acquired as a member 
of the cabinet for the purpose of collecting campaign funds 
from corporations. To this charge Cortelyou made no 
reply, but three days before the election President Roosevelt 
issued a signed statement in which he declared : "The state- 
ments made by Mr. Parker are unquahfiedly and atrociously 

false." 

Subsequent revelations as to the amounts contributed 
by corporations to the Republican fund left no doubt as 
to the effectiveness of Cortelyou's methods, whatever may 
be thought of his motives. Roosevelt was elected by the 
largest popular vote and the largest popular majority ever 
recorded for any president. He carried even Missouri, 
while Parker did not carry any state outside the South. 

The reform movement, which had been gathering strength 
for several years, reached its high water mark shortly after 
the beginning of Roosevelt's second term in the White 



534 The New Nation 

House. The public exposures of the Standard Oil and other 
trusts had convinced the people that many large fortunes 
The high ^^^ ^^^'^ accumulated fraudulently and that there 
tide of was a large group of capitalists who were sys- 

reform tematically exploiting the public. 

As a result of charges made during the campaign against 
the great corporations in New York, a committee of the 
legislature of that State was appointed to investigate the 
management of life insurance companies. This committee, 
of which Charles E. Hughes was counsel, soon uncovered 
an almost incredible state of corruption in the Wall Street 
circles of high finance. The testimony showed that the 
insurance companies, like other corporations, were in the 
habit of making heavy campaign contributions. The 
temper of the people was shown by the fact that Hughes, 
who had conducted the investigations, was elected governor 
of New York in 1906 and again in 1908 without reference 
to the wishes of the Republican machine. 

The reform movement was strong in the cities and several 
municipal revolutions were brought about. Exposure be- 
came the order of the day and the public eagerly read the 
daily papers, weeklies, and monthlies, which devoted their 
columns to laying bare corruption and fraud in State and 
national government or in business enterprises which af- 
fected the public. The exposure of the meat packers by a 
clever novelist led to direct legislation by Congress providing 
for the inspection of meats at the slaughter houses and had 
great influence in hastening legislation for insuring purity in 
foods and drugs. In 1906 Congress passed the Hepburn 
Railway Bill, giving the Interstate Commerce Commission 
power to fix rates and to prescribe uniform methods of book- 
keeping for the roads. This bill also prohibited the grant- 
ing of passes to any but railroad employees, thus putting 
an end to a notorious abuse of long standing. 

While many of the newspapers and magazines were per- 



America as a World Power 535 

fectly sincere in their efforts at reform, others were less 
scrupulous, and their attacks were prompted purely by the 
desire for sensationahsm or by hope of blackmail. Presi- 
dent Roosevelt tried to check the more radical agitators by 
comparing them to Bunyan's man with the muck-rake, and 
the term "muck-rakers" soon came into general use. 

The indiscriminate attack on big business and "predatory 
wealth" undoubtedly reacted on the credit conditions of 
the country and led to financial disturbances in jy^^ crisis 
the fall of 1907, which threatened to become very of 1907 
serious. A number of banks failed and the financial leaders 
became alarmed. They claimed that the president's attack 
on trusts, the passage of new laws, and the enforcement of 
the pure food regulations had brought about the panic. 
Their attack on the Roosevelt policies merely convinced the 
people that the president was right and that it was time 
for big business to be brought under public control. 

One of President Roosevelt's greatest services to the 
nation was undoubtedly the movement to conserve the 
natural resources. Not only had a large part of ^. 

1 11-1,1 1 . Theconser- 

the public lands been granted out to corporations, vation 
but private interests had also secured control of movement 
most of the coal, lumber, and water rights. In 1902 Congress 
passed the Newlands Bill, which began the great work of 
national irrigation. The act provided that all moneys 
received from the sale of public lands in certain western 
States be set aside as a special fund in the treasury, to be 
known as the "reclamation fund," to be used for the con- 
struction and maintenance of irrigation works. In order 
to prevent private appropriation of water rights in localities 
suited for irrigation, about 43,000,000 acres of land were 
withdrawn and reserved for homesteads after the completion 
of the irrigation projects. 

Under the operation of this act millions of acres of land 
will be brought under cultivation and provide homes for 



536 The New Nation 

hundreds of thousands of Americans. In 1908 President 
Roosevelt invited the governors of all the States to a con- 
ference at the White House, at which they were urged to 
cooperate with the national government in the great work 
of conservation. 

In the field of diplomacy the most important events of 
Roosevelt's second administration were connected with the 
The Russo- I^usso-Japanese War. As has already been stated, 
Japanese Secretary Hay's efforts to maintain the open door 

" in Manchuria were not entirely successful. Russia 

continued her encroachments, and in 1904 Japan finally de- 
livered an ultimatum which resulted in war. Throughout 
the remarkable contest that followed the sympathies of the 
American people were mainly with Japan. Japan won a 
series of brilliant naval and military victories, but her re- 
sources were finally at the point of exhaustion, and at the 
suggestion of the Japanese Emperor, as we now know, 
President Roosevelt intervened and urged the two powers 
to bring the war to a close. 

The peace commissioners of Russia and Japan met at 
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the summer of 1905. The 
Japanese commissioners had been instructed to demand a 
large war indemnity; this Russia refused to grant, and 
President Roosevelt advised the Japanese negotiators to 
give up the demand. When the terms of the treaty of 
Portsmouth reached Tokyo, there was rioting in the streets 
of the capital and great indignation against the government 
for making what were considered unfavorable terms. The 
commissioners put all the blame on President Roosevelt, 
so that public opinion in Japan was thoroughly aroused 
against the United States. 

In October, 1906, the American public suddenly became 
aware of the fact that an active anti-Japanese agitation 
was in progress in California. The San Francisco Board of 
Education passed a resolution directing all Japanese, Chinese, 



America as a World Power 537 

and Korean children to be sent to an Oriental public school 
specially provided for them. The Japanese government was 
quick to resent this action, and its ambassador ^^^ 
demanded that Japanese residents of California Japanese in 
be protected in the full enjoyment of their treaty ^'^°^'^^ 
rights. President Roosevelt directed the district attorney 
to assist the Japanese in their efforts to have their rights 
vindicated by the courts. 

The incident created great interest throughout the country 
and raised the question as to whether the United States 
had the power to make a treaty that would override the 
laws of a State. The question was temporarily adjusted 
by the agreement of the Japanese government not to issue 
passports to Japanese laborers desiring to come to the 
United States. The San Francisco School Board there- 
upon agreed to admit Japanese children to the ordinary 
schools under certain conditions of age and ability to use the 
English language. 

The real difficulty with the Japanese question is that 
the Japanese people feel that they have made good as a 
nation and are entitled to full recognition as a civilized 
people, while the laws of the United States admit to natural- 
ization only white persons and persons of African descent or 
nativity. Congress could at any time pass a law admitting 
the Japanese to naturalization, which would probably fully 
satisfy the Japanese government, but the feeling against 
such a measure is so intense on the Pacific coast that Con- 
gress is never likely to pass such an act. Japanese resent- 
ment of the school incident was so great that the press of 
both the Orient and America was filled with predictions of 
war and there were frequent reports that Japan was pre- 
paring to seize the Philippines. 

President Roosevelt was so greatly annoyed at the attitude 
of Japan that in the autumn of 1907 he decided to send a 
great American fleet on a voyage around the world and to 



538 The New Nation 

have it visit Japanese waters. The fleet left Hampton Roads 
in 1907, made the long voyage around the Horn and across 
the Pacific, was received with marked courtesy by the 
Japanese government, and returned to America without 
any untoward incident. 

President Roosevelt had announced upon several occasions 
that he would not be a candidate for a third term, as he 
The election regarded his first term in all essentials the equiva- 
of 1908 ign^ Qf a regular term. As the policies which he 

had developed and advocated in his characteristic way during 
his second term were still on trial, the important question 
was who should be selected to carry them out. The names 
of Root, Taft, and Hughes naturally suggested themselves 
in this connection. As secretary of war and later as secre- 
tary of state Elihu Root had made a great record and had 
impressed the country as being the ablest man in the cabinets 
of both McKinley and Roosevelt. William H. Taft had had 
long experience as United States circuit judge, had served 
with distinction as civil governor of the Philippines, and as 
secretary of war was in charge of the construction of the 
Panama Canal ; apparently no man had ever had a better 
training for the presidency and, moreover, Taft possessed 
a degree of personal popularity which Root lacked. Charles 
E. Hughes as governor of New York was more actively 
identified with politics and was regarded as a reformer. 

Some time before the opening of the campaign Roosevelt 
let it be known that Taft was his choice and he employed 
all the influence of his administration in securing Taft 
delegates to the Republican National Convention. When 
that body met at Chicago Taft was nominated on the first 
ballot, and a platform indorsing the Roosevelt policies was 
adopted. The Democratic National Convention met at 
Denver and for the third time nominated William J. Bryan 
for the presidency. The Democrats claimed that Roosevelt 
had adopted most of the Bryan policies, that Bryan could 



America as a World Power 539 

no longer be regarded as a radical, and as the platforms of 
the two parties did not differ essentially the voters were 
left to choose between the two candidates. Taft was 
elected by a large popular majority and received 321 elec- 
toral votes to Bryan's 162. 

GENERAL REFERENCES 

E. B. Andrews, The United Stales in Our Own Time, Chap. XXX ; 
F. L. Paxson, The New Nation, Chaps. XVII-XIX ; C. A. Beard, 
Contemporary American Historxj, Chaps. IX-XI ; J. H. Latane, 
America as a World Poiver, Chaps. VI, X-XVIII ; T. Roosevelt, 
Autobiogravhy, Chaps. X-XV ; W. R. Thayer, Life and Letters 
of John Hay, Vol. II, Chaps. XXV-XXX ; Stanwood, History 
of the Presidency (Edit, of 1916), Vol. II, Chap. Ill ; F. A. Ogg, 
National Progress, Chap. I. 



CHAPTER XXX 



THE NEW DEMOCRACY 



Roosevelt had been keenly alive to the new social and 
economic conditions created by modern industrialism, and 
TheTaftad- he had caught the new spirit of democracy that 
ministration had arisen in 
the West and was sweep- 
ing over the country. 
He tried earnestly to 
make the Republican 
party progressive, but he 
did not succeed in divorc- 
ing it from its alliance 
with big business. Taft 
was at heart a conserva- 
tive and the business in- 
terests were quick to seize 
the opportunity to side- 
track' the Roosevelt poli- 
cies. Before the close 
of his administration 
President Taft had a 
divided party on his 
hands and the way was 
open for the return of the Democratic party to power. 

The trouble in the Republican party began over the tariff. 
Dissatisfaction with the Dingley rates had developed in the 
Middle West during Roosevelt's first administration. He 
had seemed for a time to encourage the movement for tariff 

540 




William H. Taft. 




p CJ^A^ 

*' ' ALASKA 

140 



The New Democracy 541 

revision, but during his second administration he succeeded 
in avoiding the issue. The Repubhcan platform ^j^^ p^yng. 
of 1908, however, pledged the party to tariff re- Aidrich 
vision, and shortly after his inauguration President * 
Taft called a special session of Congress for the consideration 
of this question. 

A bill introduced into the House by Representative Payne 
reduced the Dingley rates, but in the Senate, when it came 
into the hands of Senator Aidrich, it was so amended as to 
increase the amount of protection. President Taft succeeded 
in getting the conference committee to make a few reductions 
and to insert a provision levying an income tax on corpora- 
tions, and he also proposed as part of the agreement a con- 
stitutional amendment providing for a general income tax. 
The measure caused a split in the Republican party, seven 
Republican senators and twenty Republican representatives 
voting against it. The tariff had been revised upward 
instead of downward, and when President Taft in a speech 
at Winona, Minnesota, claimed that the Payne-Aldrich 
Bill was a fulfillment of the party pledge, the revisionists 
received the statement with open ridicule. 

The serious nature of the split in the Republican party 
became evident as a result of dissensions in the department 
of agriculture and in the department of the in- The in- 
terior. In the fall of 1909 a controversy arose surgents 
between Dr. H. W. Wiley, who had charge of the enforce- 
ment of the pure food laws, and his chief. Secretary Wilson. 
The public became convinced that Dr. Wiley's efforts to 
enforce the law were not properly backed by the adminis- 
tration. About the same time a subordinate in the depart- 
ment of the interior made public charges against Secretary 
Ballinger, claiming that his administration of the forestry 
laws was marked by favoritism and lack of zeal for the 
policies inaugurated by Roosevelt. Gifford Pinchot, head 
of the bureau of forestry and an intimate personal friend of 



542 The New Nation 

Roosevelt, became involved in the controversy and in 
January, 1910, the president dismissed him from office. 

Congress appointed a committee to investigate the charges 
against Ballinger, and although he was nominally vindicated 
the public became convinced that the Taft administration 
was not carrying out in good faith the Roosevelt pohcies. 
Taft held such moderate views as to the constitutional 
powers of the presidency as compared with Roosevelt that 
he appeared to the public to have fallen into the hands of 
the "stand-pat" wing of his party. Those Republicans who 
revolted against the reactionary tendencies of their party 
became known as "Insurgents." The leaders of this move- 
ment were Senators La Follette and Cummins, both of whom 
aspired to the presidency. 

In the House of Representatives the chief of the "stand- 
patters" was Speaker Cannon, who exercised more despotic 
sway than had ever been dreamed of even by "Czar" Reed 
in the days of Harrison and McKinley. In March, 1910, 
the insurgents united with the Democratic minority and 
changed the rules so as to deprive the speaker of his most 
important powers. 

In the elections of 1910 the Democrats carried a majority 
of the House of Representatives and elected governors in 
Democratic Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New 
victories Jersey, and Indiana. When the next Congress 
convened, Champ Clark of Missouri was elected speaker 
and Oscar Underwood of Alabama was made chairman 
of the Ways and Means Committee. Both were candi- 
dates for the Democratic nomination for the presidency 
and eager to make a record. The new House passed several 
tariff measures, ignoring the reports of the board appointed 
by President Taft in 1909 for the scientific revision of the 
tariff. These measures passed the Senate with the aid of 
the insurgents, but were vetoed. 

In January, 1911, the president concluded a reciprocity 



The New Democracy 543 

agreement with Canada as a part of the tariff program. 
The Democrats of the House aided in passing this meas- 
ure, as they considered any reduction of the Canadian 
Payne-Aldrich rates a good thing. The insurgents reciprocity 
opposed it, as they considered it injurious to American 
farming interests. The president succeeded in forcing it 
through the Senate, after reveahng more fully than ever 
the serious split in the Republican party, but the measure 
was finally defeated by the overthrow of the Liberal party 
in Canada, which was caused in part by the charge that 
the Liberals favored ultimate annexation to the United States. 

It fell to President Taft's lot to fill more vacancies on the 
Supreme Bench than any other president had ever been 
called upon to fill in one term. He appointed ^j^^ 
Justice White chief justice in 1910, and later he Supreme 
appointed five new justices. While his appointees °"^* 
were all men of high character and professional standing, it 
was felt in some quarters that they were men who would 
take a conservative view of the great social and eco- 
nomic questions that were agitating the country. 

The Taft administration kept up the prosecution of the 
trusts under the Sherman law, which had been renewed 
under Roosevelt. In the Trans-Missouri Case in 1897 the 
Supreme Court had decided in effect that all combinations 
in restraint of trade, whether reasonable or unreasonable, 
were contrary to the Sherman Anti-Trust law. In 1911, in 
cases against the Standard Oil Company and the American 
Tobacco Company, the Court ordered the dissolution of 
these combinations, but Chief Justice White in delivering 
the opinion of the Court said that by restraint the statute 
meant "undue" restraint of trade, thus introducing the 
element of "reasonableness." These companies were dis- 
solved, but big business was reassured by the new doctrine 
laid down by the Court. 

The foreign policy of the Taft administration was not 



544 The New Nation 

particularly striking. Philander C. Knox, a successful cor- 
poration lawyer of Pittsburg, had not had the kind of training 
Taft's ^^ experience to fit him for the position of secretary 

foreign of state. By his "dollar diplomacy" he under- 

^° ^^ took to advance American financial enterprises in 

Latin-America. His proposal to neutralize the railroads of 
Manchuria, at that time a bone of contention between 
Russia and Japan, by organizing foreign syndicates to 
purchase and control them, antagonized both of those 
countries and further aroused anti-American sentiment in 
Japan. Personally President Taft devoted much time and 
thought to the promotion of international arbitration. 
Under his direction a number of treaties providing for the 
compulsory arbitration of all "justiciable" disputes were 
negotiated, but the United States Senate amended them 
so radically as to render them unacceptable either to the 
administration or to the foreign powers with whom they 
had been signed. 

Notwithstanding the defeat of many administration 
measures. President Taft's term witnessed the passage of a 
The lose of ^lumber of important acts. An act passed in 
Taft's ad- June, 1910, provided for the establishment of a 
ministration gyg^gj^ Qf postal savings banks, and a bill estab- 
lishing a parcels post, introduced by a Democrat, David J. 
Lewis of Maryland, and favored by President Taft, was 
finally enacted into law August 24, 1912, thus overcoming 
at last the long and bitter opposition which the express 
companies had corruptly maintained against this important 
extension of the post office department. 

The income tax amendment, proposed by Pres- 
and Seven- ident Taft in 1909, having been ratified by the 
teenth necessary number of states, was proclaimed as 

the Sixteenth Amendment in February, 1913. 
The Seventeenth Amendment, providing for the direct 
election of United States senators by the people, which had 



The New Democracy 545 

passed the House half a dozen times within the preceding 
twenty years, was finally adopted by the Senate in 1911 
and submitted to the States. Having received the neces- 
sary number of ratifications, it was proclaimed May 31, 1913, 
shortly after the beginning of Wilson's administration. 

During the twenty years preceding the election of 1912 
there had been repeated expressions of dissatisfaction with 
representative government, and many new forms 
of democracy had made their appearance. The representa- 
initiative and referendum in legislation were tivegovern- 
adopted by South Dakota in 1896, by Utah in 
1900, by Oregon in 1902, by Montana in 1906, by Oklahoma 
in 1907, by Missouri and Maine in 1908, by Arkansas and 
Colorado in 1910, by Arizona and California in 1911, and 
in 1912 by Washington, Nebraska, Idaho, and Ohio. The 
recall of elective officers, adopted by Los Angeles in 1903 
and Seattle in 1906, was widely advocated throughout the 
West, and the proposal was made to extend it to judges of 
State courts. The movement for greater popular control 
over party machinery found expression in the enactment 
of a State-wide primary law by Wisconsin in 1903, by Oregon 
in 1904, and by Illinois in 1905. 

The commission form of city government, doing away 
with the familiar city council and placing municipal affairs 
in the hands of a small board of administrative officers, was 
first adopted by the city of Galveston after the destructive 
tidal wave of 1904, to meet a temporary emergency, but 
proved so satisfactory that it was continued as a permanent 
form of city government. The same type of city govern- 
ment, with varying modifications, was later adopted by 
Des Moines, Iowa, and other cities. 

The appearance of these new institutions of democracy 
was due to a deep-seated distrust on the part of the people 
of State legislatures, party organizations, and city councils. 
The cause of woman suffrage made great headway during 



546 The New Nation 

this period and became a subject of national agitation. 
Women were given the vote first by Wyoming in 1890, then 
by Colorado in 1893, by Utah and Idaho in 1896, by Wash- 
ington in 1910, and within the next four years by California, 
Arizona, Kansas, Oregon, Illinois, Nevada, and Montana. • 

During the political crisis of Taft's administration, Roose- 
velt was absent from the United States, engaged in a hunting 
The return trip in Africa. When he returned in June, 1910, 
of Roosevelt i\^q whole country was eager to know what he 
would have to say about Taft's stewardship. Many of 
Roosevelt's warmest personal friends had split with the 
president, the spirit of reform was rampant in the West, 
and there seemed to be a trend toward the Democratic 
party. A few weeks after his return Roosevelt plunged into 
the New York fight between the Hughes and Barnes wings of 
the Republican party, defeated Vice-President Sherman for 
the chairmanship of the State convention, and secured the 
nomination of Stimson for governor. The defeat of the 
latter in November was hailed as the "elimination" of 
Roosevelt, but he was not to be so easily disposed of. 

On August 31, in a speech at Osawatomie, Kansas, he 
laid down a new political creed which he named the "New 
Nationalism." In this address he embraced the whole 
Western program : Federal regulation of trusts, a graduated 
income tax, tariff revision, labor legislation, direct primaries, 
and the recall not only of administrative officers, but of 
judicial decisions. In February, 1912, in an address before 
the constitutional convention of Ohio he came out strongly 
for the intiative, referendum, and recall. 

. In January, 1912, a group of "Insurgents" met 

tion of the at the house of Senator La Follette in Washing- 
Progressive ton and organized the National Progressive Re- 
publican League. A second meeting of this group 
was held in the office of Senator Bourne in April. They 
assured La Follette of support if he would become a candi- 



The New Democracy 547 

date for the presidency. In July he began an active cam- 
paign, and in October a national conference of Progressive 
Republicans at C'hicago indorsed him, although Pinchot, 
Garfield, and other friends of Roosevelt held aloof from 
the La Follette movement. 

In February, 1912, seven Republican governors united in 
a letter to Roosevelt urging him to become a candidate for 
the Republican nomination. He replied, February 24, that 
he would accept the nomination if tendered, and expressed 
a desire to let the people decide the matter in direct primaries. 
He immediately began an active campaign for delegates to 
the Republican National Convention and the fight between 
himself and Taft, who expected the nomination, became 
extremely bitter. Roosevelt exclaimed, "My hat is in the 
ring," and showed every intention of waging the fight to a 
finish. 

As the Republican machine stood by Taft he had a safe 
majority of the delegates that came to the Chicago conven- 
tion, though Roosevelt carried the States in ^jje^am- 
which primaries were held and secured over 400 paignof 
delegates. In addition, the latter contested on ^^^^ 
various pretexts the seats of 250 Taft delegates, thus claim- 
ing a majority of the convention. The national committee 
refused to recognize these claims and Taft was renominated. 
Roosevelt denounced this action as "theft," addressed a 
mass convention of his followers, and sent them home to 
organize a new party. 

The Democratic convention met in Baltimore July 1. 
The principal candidates for the nomination were Speaker 
Clark, Chairman Underwood of the Ways and Means 
Committee, Governor Harman of Ohio, and Woodrow 
Wilson, who had resigned the presidency of Princeton 
University to become governor of New Jersey. On a 
number of ballots Clark received a majority and his nomina- 
tion seemed a question of time, but the Wilson followers 



548 The New Nation 

would not give up the fight, and Bryan, who regarded Clark 
as the candidate of the Democratic machines in the Eastern 
States, finally came out openly for Wilson, who was nomi- 
nated on the forty-sixth ballot with Governor Thomas Mar- 
shall of Indiana for vice-president. Early in August Roose- 
velt's followers met in Chicago and organized the National 
Progressive party. The movement attracted many social 
reformers and free lances, but the number of political leaders 
in attendance was significantly small. Roosevelt was nomi- 
nated amid great enthusiasm, and Governor Hiram Johnson 
of California was placed on the ticket as candidate for vice- 
president. 

Roosevelt conducted a vigorous campaign, but his attack 
was directed against Taft rather than against Wilson. The 
antagonism between Republicans and Progressives became 
exceedingly bitter. Although Wilson's popular vote was 
about a million less than the combined Republican and Pro- 
gressive votes, he received 435 electoral votes to Roosevelt's 
81 and Taft's 15. 

It was some months after the inauguration of Wilson 
before the politicians began to comprehend the new type 
Woodrow of msin whom the people had called to the pres- 
Wilson idential chair. They readily admitted his intel- 

lectual force and his extraordinary gifts as a writer and 
speaker, but these powers did not convince them of his 
fitness for the presidency. What they could not under- 
stand was his grasp of the details of political organization, 
of the game of politics as actually played, and above all 
his sympathetic interpretation of the popular will, and his use 
of publicity as a weapon of coercion. Although Roosevelt 
had developed latent presidential powers to a striking ex- 
tent, even he had failed to realize the full possibilities of the 
office. 

Wilson's belief in presidential initiative and party leader- 
ship, based on principle and derived from a profound study 



' The New Democracy 549 

of English as well as of American politics, was more con- 
sistently exercised. He broke the precedents of a hundred 
years, disconcerted the politicians, and astonished but 
pleased the people by going before Congress and personally 
urging legislation on hnportant matters. No president had 
ever been so successful in forcing the hand of Congress and 
compelling that body to enact into law party pledges and 
popular demands. 

President Wilson called Congress to meet in extra session 
in April, 1913, and appeared before the two houses to urge 
in person the revision of the tariff to which the constructive 
platform had pledged the party. The Under- legislation 
wood Act, which became law October 3, 1913, was a revision 
downward of the existing tariff and was framed with a 
view to encouraging rather than restricting foreign trade. 
The Federal Reserve Act of December 23, 1913, radically 
revised the financial system which had grown up under the 
National Banking Act of 1863. Its object was to decen- 
tralize credits by establishing reserve banks in convenient 
centers throughout the country and thus preventing the 
accumulation of reserve currency in the New York banks. 
It has made the currency more elastic and greatly diminished 
the danger of financial panics to which the old system fre- 
quently gave rise. 

In January, 1914, the president again appeared before 
Congress and proposed anti-trust legislation. He suggested 
a clearer definition of illegal practices than was provided by 
the somewhat vague and general language of the Sherman 
Act of 1890. He also proposed a trade commission with 
power to investigate and prevent illegal practices and inter- 
locking directorates. These proposals were debated for 
months but finally embodied in the Federal Trade Commis- 
sion and Clayton Anti-Trust bills which were passed in 
October, 1914. Congress then adjourned, having been in 
almost continuous session for eighteen months and having 



550 The New Nation 

passed measures of more far-reaching importance than any 
Congress since the Civil War. 

In foreign affairs President Wilson had from the first 

exceedingly difficult problems to face. His administration 

was scarcely under way when the attention of the 

Japanese country was once more drawn to the anti-Japanese 

legislature agitation in California. This time the State 

in California , . , 

legislature proposed to deny to aliens who were 
ineligible to American citizenship the right to acquire agri- 
cultural land. The president sent Secretary Bryan to 
California to urge moderation upon the legislators. His 
mission was not wholly successful. The act as finally passed 
safeguarded the treaty rights of aliens, but as the Japanese 
treaty did not specifically cover the point in question, the 
Japanese were left without redress. 

The dispute with England over the Panama Tolls Act 
was another question which the president had to handle 
The Panama ^^^^ care. The British government claimed that 
tolls the exemption of American vessels engaged in the 

ques on coastwise trade from the payment of tolls was a 
violation of the Hay-Pauncefote treaty. The president be- 
lieved that the British interpretation of the treaty was 
correct and he had the difficult task of having to persuade 
Congress to repeal the exemption clause of the Tolls Act. 
This was done June 15, 1914. 

In May, 1911, Porfirio Diaz, who had been president of 
Mexico since 1884, was forced to retire, and Francisco Madero, 

the leader of the revolt, was elected president, 
question ^^^ efforts to improve the condition of the native 

race aroused factional opposition and on Febru- 
ary 18, 1913, he was seized and imprisoned as the result of a 
conspiracy formed by one of his generals, Victoriano Huerta, 
who forthwith proclaimed himself dictator. Four days later 
Madero was murdered while in the custody of Huerta's 
troops. Henry Lane Wilson, the American Ambassador, 



The New Democracy 551 

promptly urged his government to recognize Huerta, but 
President Taft, whose term was rapidly drawing to a close, 
took no action and left the question to his successor. 

Insurrections against Huerta's rule broke out almost 
immediately in several parts of the country and he was 
unable to extend his authority over the disaffected areas. 
President Wilson and Secretary Bryan were fully justified 
in refusing to recognize him, though they probably made a 
mistake in announcing that they would never do so, and in 
demanding his elimination from the presidential contest. 
This action made him' deaf to advice from Washington and 
utterly indifferent to the destruction of American life and 
property. 

One of the serious features of the Mexican situation was 
that the revolutions were financed by American capitalists 
who had large investments in mines, rubber plan- ^j^^ occupa- 
tations, and other enterprises. The American tion of Vera 
Ambassador, Henry Lane Wilson, was a partisan "^"^ 
of Huerta, so that the State Department could not rel}'^ upon 
information derived from him and had to recall him at a 
critical moment. Meanwhile the financial interests which 
had backed the Huerta revolution were clamoring for his 
recognition, but the president paid no heed to their demands 
or criticisms and continued to pursue his "policy of watchful 
waiting." 

On April 20, 1914, the president asked Congress for 
authority to employ the armed forces of the United States 
in demanding redress for the arbitrary arrest of American 
marines at Vera Cruz, and the next day Admiral Fletcher 
was ordered to seize the customhouse at Vera Cruz. This 
he did after a sharp fight with Huerta's troops in which 
19 Americans were killed and 70 wounded. The American 
charg^ d'affaires, Nelson O'Shaughnessy, was at once handed 
his passports, and all diplomatic relations between the 
United States and Mexico were severed. 



dS'-Z , The New Nation 

A few days later the representatives of Argentina, Brazil 
and Chile tendered their good offices for a peaceful settle- 
ment of the conflict, and President Wilson promptly accepted 
Recognition their mediation. The resulting conference, which 
of Carranza convened at Niagara, May 20, was not successful 
in its immediate object, but it resulted in the elimination of 
Huerta, who resigned July 15, 1914. On August 20 GTeneral 
Venustiano Carranza, head of one of the revolutionary factions, 
assumed control of affairs at the capital, but his authority 
was disputed by General Francisco Villa, another insur- 
rectionary chief. On Carranza's promise to respect the lives 
and property of American citizens the United States forces 
were withdrawn from Vera Cruz in November, 1914. 

In August, 1915, at the request of President Wilson, the 
six ranking representatives of Latin America at Washington 
made an unsuccessful effort to reconcile the contending 
factions in Mexico. On their advice, however, President 
Wilson decided in October to recognize the government of 
Carranza, who now controlled three fourths of the territory 
of Mexico, as the de facto government of the republic. As 
a result of this action Villa began a series of attacks on 
American citizens and raids across the border, which in 
March, 1916, compelled the president to send a punitive 
expedition into Mexico and later to dispatch most of the 
regular army and large bodies of militia to the border. 

President Wilson's Mexican policy was avowedly based 

on his larger Pan-American policy. The fact should not 

be overlooked that the rapid advance of the 

The new ^ 

Pan-Amer- United States in the Caribbean Sea during the 
icanism ^^^^^ ^^q decades had created violent opposition 
and alarm in certain parts of Latin America. As a result 
of the Spanish War the United States acquired Porto Rico 
and a protectorate over Cuba; a little later President 
Roosevelt seized the Canal Zone from Colombia and es- 
tablished financial supervision over Santo Domingo; and 



The New Democracy 553 

at the time of the Mexican crisis American marines occupied 
Hayti and Nicaragua. It was widely believed in Latin 
America that the United States had converted the Monroe 
Doctrine from a protective policy into a policy of imperial- 
istic aggression. Another step in Caribbean expansion was 
taken in 1917 when the Danish West Indies were pur- 
chased. 

Under these circumstances every move in the Mexican 
situation was viewed with suspicion. The understanding 
which had existed for some years between the three leading 
Latin-American States, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, gener- 
ally referred to as the ABC alliance, was believed to have 
been formed for the purpose of checking the encroachments 
of the United States. 

In accepting the mediation of the ABC powers in Mexico 
and later asking their advice, President Wilson took a long 
step toward overcoming the resentment and alarm created 
by Roosevelt's aggressive action in seizing Panama and 
waving the big stick over our Southern neighbors. As a 
result of President Wilson's policy relations with Latin 
America were placed on a better footing than they had been 
for a generation. 

GENERAL REFERENCES 

C. A. Beard, Contemporary American History, Chaps. XII, 
XIII ; F. L. Paxson, The New Nation, Chap. XX ; F. W. Taussig, 
Tariff History of the United States, Chap. VIII ; E. Stanwood, 
History of the Presidency (Edit, of 1916), Vol. II, Chap. IV; F. A. 
Ogg, National Progress, Chaps. II-XVII ; J. B. Moore, Principles of 
American Diplomacy, pp. 215-238, 365-419. 



CHAPTER XXXI 
THE EUROPEAN WAR 

At the outbreak of the great European War in August, 
1914, President Wilson issued the usual proclamation of 
neutrality, and no one foresaw the issues that 
European would shortly arise and the extent to which the 
^" vital interests of the United States would be in- 

volved. The first task was to bring home the thousands of 
American tourists who were stranded in all parts of Europe 
by the sudden mobilization of armies. The sudden inter- 
ruption of international trade, particularly the export of 
cotton, caused a general business depression and the country 
was saved from a serious financial panic only by the opera- 
tions of the Treasury Department under the new Federal 
Reserve Act. 

Business revived when American firms began taking 
orders from England, France, and Russia for large supplies 
of arms and munitions of war. The sale of contraband was 
perfectly permissible under international law, but as the 
British navy controlled the seas, the Germans and Austrians 
were unable to get munitions from America, and denounced 
the trade in war supplies as one-sided and unneutral. Mean- 
while the German invasion of Belgium with its ruthless 
atrocities had shocked the moral sense of the world and 
enlisted the sympathies of the great majority of Americans 
on the side of Germany's enemies. When the horrors of 
the Belgian invasion became fully known many Americans 
began to criticize the president for not having protested 
against, or tried to prevent, what nobody at the time an- 
ticipated or believed possible. 

554 



The European War 555 

The British navy found little difficulty in stopping all 
direct trade with the enemy in contraband articles, but 
this was of little avail so long as the trade con- interference 
tinned through the ports of Italy, Holland, and with neutral 
the Scandinavian countries. In order to stop this ^* ® 
indirect carriage of contraband the British government 
inaugurated, in the early stages of the war, a policy of search 
and detention which imposed great hardships on neutral 
vessels and neutral commerce. The list of contraband 
articles was greatly enlarged and, on the plea that great 
freight ships could not be properly searched at sea, they 
were taken into port, sometimes far out of their course, and 
detained for indefinite periods. 

Great Britain further assumed that contraband articles 
shipped to neutral countries adjacent to Germany and 
Austria were intended for them unless proof to the contrary 
was forthcoming. The United States protested vigorously 
against this policy, but the force of its protest was weakened 
by the fact that during the Civil War the American govern- 
ment had pursued substantially the same policy in regard 
to goods shipped by neutrals to Nassau, Havana, Mata- 
moros, and other ports adjacent to the Confederacy. In 
fact the doctrine of continuous voyage or transshipment 
which England was applying was an American doctrine 
enunciated by the Supreme Court to justify the seizure of 
British goods during the Civil War. 

Soon after the outbreak of hostilities Germany began 
scattering floating mines in the path of British commerce, 
and on November 3, 1914, the British govern- submarine 
ment, as an act of retaliation, declared the North warfare 
Sea a "war area" and warned neutral vessels not to enter 
without receiving sailing directions from the British squad- 
ron. Under pressure of what amounted to a stringent 
blockade, the German naval authorities decided to employ 
their large submarine flotilla, which had been unable to 



556 The New Nation 

inflict any serious damage on the British navy, in an attack 
on British commerce. On February 4, 1915, Germany 
proclaimed a war zone around the British Isles, including 
the whole of the Channel, declared that all enemy merchant 
vessels encountered in these waters after the 18th would 
be destroyed, even though it might not be possible to save 
the passengers and crews, and added the warning that 
neutral vessels could not always be prevented from suffer- 
ing from the attacks intended for enemy ships. 

Against this decree the United States at once protested 
and warned the German government that it would be held 
to a "strict accountability" for the destruction of American 
ships or the loss of American lives. The submarine policy 
was nevertheless inaugurated on the date set and within a 
few weeks two Standard Oil tankers bearing the American 
flag had been torpedoed and several American citizens had 
lost their lives. Before the American government had 
decided what action to take the whole world was startled 
by the deliberate torpedoing, without warning, off the 
southern point of Ireland, of the great ocean liner Lusitania, 
May 7, 1915. She was bound from New York for Liver- 
pool, and had 1917 souls on board. Of this number 1153 
perished, including 114 American men, women, and children. 
The German press hailed the sinking of the Lusitania as 
a triumph of the submarine policy. In America it was 

defended only by the extreme pro-Germans. The 
Lusitania press of the country denounced it as an act of bar- 
corre- barism and it was generally believed that the 

German ambassador would be given his pass- 
ports as soon as the press reports of the disaster were officially 
confirmed. President Wilson, however, decided to exhaust 
the resources of diplomacy before breaking off relations 
with Germany, and in a calm and dignified note to the 
German government he reasserted the right of Americans 
to travel on the high seas, denounced the illegality of sub-. 



The European War 557 

marine warfare, and called on Germany for a disavowal of 
the act and for reparation, so far as reparation was possible. 
The German reply was unsatisfactory. It claimed that the 
Lusitania was armed and therefore not entitled to be treated 
as an ordinary merchantman, and that the destruction of a 
ship bearing ammunition to the enemy was an act of "just 
self-defense." 

President Wilson was on the point of dispatching a second 
note to Germany when Secretary of State Bryan tendered 
his resignation, stating as his reason that the new note meant 
war, and that therefore he could not sign it. Robert Lansing 
of New York, a well-known authority on international law 
and counselor for the Department of State, was appointed 
to succeed, him. 

While the Lusitania correspondence was still in progress, 
matters- were brought to a crisis in August, 1915, by the 
torpedoing of the White Star liner Arabic, involv- 

..... ^ Germany 

mg the loss of two American citizens. Count promises to 
Bernstorff realized fully the seriousness of the modify her 
situation, and without waiting for the American 
government to act, promptly assured Secretary Lansing that 
if it should prove true that American lives were lost on the 
Arabic, it was contrary to the intention of his government. 
This announcement indicated a change of policy on the part 
of Germany, and paved the way for further negotiation. 
The submarine campaign had not seriously interfered with 
British commerce, and it had brought Germany to the 
verge of war with the United States. On September 1, 
Count Bernstorff gave assurances that henceforth liners 
would not be sunk by submarines without warning and 
without saving the lives of noncombatants, provided they 
would not attempt to escape or offer resistance. 

This pledge, solemnly given in order to avert a crisis, 
was not kept in good faith. The German submarines con- 
tinued their unlawful attacks and matters were again brought 



558 The New Nation 

to a crisis in March, 1916, when the Sussex, an unarmed 
passenger steamer, was torpedoed without warning in the 
The attack Enghsh Channel. About eighty passengers, in- 
on the eluding several citizens of the United States, 

""^* were killed or injured. The German government 

at first denied responsibility for the disaster, but conclusive 
evidence was finally adduced, showing that the vessel was 
attacked by a German submarine, and on April 18 Secretary 
Lansing drew up an ultimatum declaring that unless the 
German government should immediately abandon its 
methods of submarine warfare against passenger and freight 
vessels, the United States would have "no choice but to 
sever diplomatic relations with the German Empire alto- 
gether." In reply the German government stated that its 
naval forces had received orders not to sink merchant 
vessels without warning and without saving human lives, 
unless the vessels should attempt to escape or to offer re- 
sistance. The United States accepted this assurance as 
an abandonment of the submarine policy announced on 
February 4, 1915, and for some months there was a marked 
cessation of submarine activity. 

After the German and Austrian governments had tried 
in vain to persuade the American government that the 
trade in munitions of war was unneutral, and after 
activities in the German propagandists had failed in their 
the United efforts to get Congress to place an embargo on the 
export of munitions, an extensive conspiracy was 
formed to break up the trade by a resort to criminal methods. 
In July, 1915, an attempt was made by a German instructor 
in an American university to assassinate J. P. Morgan, the 
chief fiscal agent in America of the British government. 
Numerous explosions occurred in munitions plants, destroy- 
ing many lives and millions of dollars of property, and 
bombs were placed in a number of ships engaged in carry- 
ing supplies to the allies. The Austrian ambassador, 



The European War 559 

Dr. Dumba, lent his active support to a plan to cripple the 
munitions plants by widespread strikes among employees. 
As a result, his recall was demanded by Secretary Lansing 
in September, 1915. 

The German military and naval attaches at Washington, 
Captain Franz von Papen and Captain Karl Boy-Ed, were 
involved in these activities and in November their recall 
was likewise demanded. These conspiracies were not con- 
fined to foreigners, but many naturalized Americans of 
German origin were involved and arrayed against the gov- 
ernment of the United States. The term "hyphenated" 
American was applied to them and soon came into general 
use. In his annual message of December, 1915, President 
Wilson publicly denounced those men who had "poured 
the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national 
life," and urged Congress to enact laws which would enable 
him to handle the situation. The German propagandists 
resolved to defeat Wilson for reelection at all hazards and 
thus made the "hyphen" a distinct issue in American 
politics. 

The Congress which met in December, 1915, passed a 
number of measures of far-reaching importance. The 
National Defense Act provided for a regular army ^j^^ 
of 186,000 officers and men, a federalized National National 
Guard of over 400,000 men, a system of civilian ^^*^°'^ ^'* 
training camps for reserve officers, and the establishment of 
plants for the production of nitrates and other products 
used in the manufacture of munitions. The bill was passed 
after a long fight between the advocates of a new "con- 
tinental army" and those who favored federalizing the 
existing National Guard. The secretary of war and the 
general staff favored the former, but their plan was defeated 
by Chairman Hay of the House Committee on Military 
Affairs. The president's apparent willingness to accept the 
Hay Bill led Secretary Garrison to resign from the cabinet 



560 The New Nation 

in February, 1916, and a month later, Newton D. Baker of 
Ohio was appointed secretary of war. 

The naval program was likewise the subject of heated 
debate. The measure which was finally enacted in August, 
1916, went far beyond the original proposals of the secretary 
of the navy. It provided for an expenditure of over 
$500,000,000 for new construction within the next three 
years. 

In order to meet increased army and navy expenditures 
a new revenue act was passed in September, doubling the 
normal tax on incomes and raising the surtax on 
ortanfacts ^^^'S^ incomes to a maximum of 13 per cent on in- 
comes of $2,000,000 or over ; the taxes on in- 
heritances, on munitions, and on corporations were also 
increased. 

Other important measures passed during the same session 
were the act establishing a Shipping Board, the act extend- 
ing a larger measure of autonomy to the Filipinos and 
promising them ultimate independence, the act excluding 
from interstate commerce products into the manufacture 
of which child labor entered, and the usual river and harbor 
bill involving millions of needless expenditure. 

The strong leadership displayed by Wilson in putting 
through Congress his program of progressive legislation 
Renomina- insured his renomination for the presidency, not- 
tion of withstanding the severe criticism which his foreign 

^^^°° policy called forth. His handling of the Mexican 

situation aroused bitter opposition, while his failure to secure 
effectively the rights of neutrals in the European War 
alienated many of those who had voted for him in 1912. 
There was, however, no opposition within the party and 
when the Democratic National Convention met in St. 
Louis, June 14, Wilson and Marshall were renominated 
unanimously. 

The Republican convention which met in Chicago a week 



The European War 561 

earlier had a much more difficult situation to face. Its 
task was to choose a candidate who would be acceptable to 
the Progressive party and thus prevent that party 
from again placing Roosevelt in the field. In RepubUcans 
Februarv Elihu Root made what was intended ^'^ 

PrO£XGSSlV6S 

to be a "keynote" speech before a Repubhcan 
convention in New York, denouncing the president's foreign 
policy as " weak, vacillating, and stultifying." The Republi- 
cans dared not openly criticize Wilson's legislative measures 
for fear of antagonizing the Progressives, so they were forced 
to make the foreign policy the paramount issue. Colonel 
Roosevelt had, however, been even severer than Root in 
his criticism of the administration, and his friends claimed 
that he was the logical candidate to place in the field against 
Wilson. The Progressives made it clear at any rate that 
they would not support Root. 

Republican hopes were then centered in Justice Charles E. 
Hughes of the Supreme Court, who had been out of politics 
for six years, and whose views on the issues which had split 
the party were not known. While there was little enthusiasm 
for Hughes, it was thought that he would be acceptable to 
both Republicans and Progressives. His position on the 
Supreme Court gave him an excuse for maintaining a Sphinx- 
like silence on all the vital issues before the country. 

With the hope of agreeing on the same candidate the 
Republican and Progressive conventions met in Chicago on 
the same day, June 7. It was soon evident that Nomination 
the Republican convention was controlled by the °^ Hughes 
"Old Guard," as the conservatives and reactionaries were 
called, while the members of the Progressive convention 
were eager to nominate Roosevelt without waiting to see 
whom the Republicans would choose. Their leaders held 
them back, however, and proposed a conference between 
committees of the two conventions. The Republican con- 
ferees proposed Hughes as a compromise candidate, while 



562 The New Nation 

the Progi-essives insisted on Roosevelt, and no agreement 
was reached. On the fourth day the Repubhcan conven- 
tion began balloting, and it was soon evident that Hughes 
would be nominated. On learning this the Progressives 
nominated Roosevelt by acclamation a few seconds before 
the Republicans finished balloting for Hughes. 

Eventually Roosevelt declined the Progressive nomina- 
tion and urged his followers to support Hughes, but many 
of them refused to be led back into the Republican party 
and cast their votes for Wilson. Hughes conducted an 
active campaign, traveling from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
and later making a second tour through the Middle West. 
He violently assailed Wilson's Mexican policy, but on the 
vital issues raised by the European War he was noncom- 
mittal. He was apparently trying to hold the German- 
American vote, which was normally Republican, while 
Roosevelt created widespread enthusiasm among native 
Americans by denouncing in emphatic terms the misdeeds 
of Germany and the failure of Wilson to protect American 
lives and property. 

About the middle of August a new turn was given to the 
campaign by the threat of a general strike of railroad men 
The threat- ^^^" ^^ eight-liour day and extra pay for overtime, 
ened rail- In order to avert the threatened calamity to 
roa str e j^Qginggg a^f^j industry, President Wilson invited 
the labor leaders and the railroad managers to a conference 
at the White House, and proposed that the demands of the 
men be provisionally conceded and that in the meantime 
Congress should authorize him to appoint a commission to 
observe and report the results. This proposal was accepted 
by the labor leaders but rejected by the railroad presidents. 

The strike was ordered for September 4, and on August 
The Adam- 29 the president went before Congress and urged 
son law immediate legislation along the line of his pro- 
posals. He suggested, in addition, the enlargement of the 



The European War 563 

Interstate Commerce Commission, increased freight rates, 
and provision for a public investigation before a strike or 
lockout might be lawfully attempted. Congress promptly- 
passed the Adamson law embodying the eight-hour day, 
extra pay for overtime, and the commission to observe and 
report, but postponed action on the other proposals. The 
act was signed September 3 and the strike averted. 

The president's course was widely assailed as a surrender 
under pressure to the labor leaders, who, it was claimed, 
had taken advantage of the political situation at home and 
the delicate state of foreign relations to gain their ends. 
The Adamson law was eagerly seized by Hughes as a cam- 
paign issue and became the main target of his attack during 
the rest of the canvass. 

Throughout the greater part of the campaign President 
Wilson remained at his summer residence, ''Shadow Lawn," 
where he received delegations and delivered a The election 
number of carefully prepared addresses. He ap- returns 
pealed to his record and paid little attention to the criticisms 
of his opponents. Up to the last many voters were un- 
decided as to how they would cast their ballots. The 
election turned out to be one of the closest in the history 
of the country, and for several days after the votes were 
cast the result was in doubt. By nine o'clock of election 
night it was evident that Hughes had carried New York, 
Indiana, and Illinois, and many of the Democratic papers, 
including the New York Times, conceded his election. 

The next day, however, when the country districts and 
the smaller States of the West were heard from, the returns 
were more favorable for Wilson. Hughes carried West 
Virginia, Delaware, and all of the northern States east of 
• the Mississippi except New Hampshire and Ohio ; west of 
the Mississippi he carried only Iowa, Minnesota, South 
Dakota, and Oregon. The remaining thirty-one States were 
carried by Wilson. 



564 The New Nation 

The election probably turned on the Progressive vote of 
the West more than on any other one factor. This was 
The vote in particularly true of the vote in California, where 
California conditions Were peculiar. Governor Hiram John- 
son, who had been the Progressive candidate for vice- 
president four years before, was elected to the United States 
Senate on the Republican ticket by nearly 300,000 votes 
over his Democratic opponent, while Wilson carried the 
State by a majority of 3800 over Hughes, The latter lost 
the State by identifying himself during his visit to Cali- 
fornia with the leaders of the reactionary faction of the 
Republican party, thus alienating the former Progressives. 

In this campaign the women's vote figured conspicuously 
for the first time in a presidential contest, and the first 
woman representative was elected to Congress, Miss Jean- 
nette Rankin of Montana, but the women's vote does not 
appear anywhere to have had a decisive effect on the out- 
come. The same was true of the German vote and of the 
labor vote, both of which were divided. 

During the summer and fall of 1916 the European armies 
were at a deadlock on the western front. In the East the 
President Germans made a successful drive into Rumania 
Wilson's and on December 6 occupied the capital city, 
peace move Bucharest. Six days later Germany, acting for 
herself and her allies, announced to the Entente Powers 
her willingness "to enter forthwith upon negotiations for 
peace." No terms were proposed and she let it be known 
that none would be announced until the offer to negotiate 
was accepted. President Wilson transmitted the German 
note to England and France without comment. On the 
18th, however, he addressed an identic note to the govern- 
ments of all the nations at war requesting them to state 
definitely the terms on which they would deem it possible 
to make peace. 

This note was for a time regarded in England and France 



The European War 565 

as unwarranted meddling and as an indorsement, in a way, 
of the German proposal, but when the replies of the warring 
nations were made public, the first impressions of the presi- 
dent's move were modified. The Central Powers merely 
replied that they were ready to enter into negotiations and 
tried to fasten on their enemies the responsibility for con- 
tinuing the war. The Entente Powers, on the other hand, 
stated fairly definitely the measure of reparation and restitu- 
tion and the guarantees which they considered indispensable 
conditions of a permanent peace. 

Meanwhile it was rumored that Germany was construct- 
ing ocean-going submarines of a new and larger type and 
that she intended to resume unrestricted sub- 
marine warfare on a more extensive scale than The an- 
ever. On January 22, 1917, President Wilson nouncement 
delivered a notable address to the Senate, in stricted 
which he outlined the principles on which the submarine 
United States would be willing to enter into a after Febru- 
League for Peace, hoping that if a satisfactory ^''y ^' ^9^7 
basis for the future peace of the world could be 
established, the war might be brought to a close. On 
January 31, however, the German ambassador handed 
Secretary Lansing a formal note announcing a new zone 
around Great Britain and France and warning him that all 
ships, those of neutrals included, found within the zone 
after February 1 would be sunk. 

The eyes of the country were again focused on the presi- 
dent with an intensity of interest which had not been felt 
since the sinking of the Lusitania. On February 3, he ap- 
peared before Congress and in calm and measured tones 
announced that Count BernstorfT had that day been given 
his passports and that all diplomatic intercourse with 
Germany was at an end. This announcement was en- 
thusiastically received by the great majority of the American 
people, who were soon in a state of hourly expectation of 



566 The New Nation 

the "overt act" which the president said he would await 
before recommending further action. 

During the next three weeks two American ships were 
sunk by German submarines, but without loss of life. Ship- 
owners were, however, unwilling to send their 
The debate yggggjg ^q ggg^ g^j^^j American commerce was tied 

on the pro- _ _ ' 

posaitoarm up in American ports under a practical embargo 
^os^*'^* laid by decree of the German government. Under 
these circumstances President Wilson again ap- 
peared before Congress, February 26, and asked for author- 
ity to arm American merchantmen, in order that they might 
protect themselves in passing through the danger zone. 
The House voted overwhelmingly for the resolution giving 
the president the necessary authority, but under the rules 
of the Senate permitting unlimited debate, a small group of 
eleven senators, led by La Follette of Wisconsin and Varda- 
man of Mississippi, prevented a vote being taken and Con- 
gress adjourned March 4 without action by the Senate. 

Popular indignation against the recalcitrant senators was 
raised to a fever heat by the disclosure, on March 1, of the 
^jjg famous "Zimmermann Note," in which the Ger- 

Zimmer- man foreign secretary invited Mexico to unite 
mann note ^-^j^ Germany and Japan in a war against the 
United States. The dispatch was addressed to the German 
minister in Mexico and was transmitted through Count 
Bernstorff at Washington, but was intercepted and came 
into the possession of the State Department. Both Mexico 
and Japan indignantly denied any knowledge of the note 
or any possibility of their being led into such a scheme. 
[ The failure of the Senate to act on the resolution giving 
the president authority to arm merchantmen made it 
Revision of necessary for him to call an extra session of Con- 
Senate rules gress, which convened April 2. The Senate had 
already convened in extra session on March 5, and in response 
to the demands of public opinion had revised its rules, placing 



The European War 567 

reasonable limits on debate and making it impossible for a 
small group to delay action indefinitely. 

1 Meanwhile the president had been forced to the conclusion 
that the arming of merchantmen would not be a sufficiently 
effective means of dealing with the submarine ^.j^^ ^^^^_ 
terror. On April 2 he appeared before a joint dent's war 
session of the two Houses and urged "that the * ®^^ 
Congress declare the recent course of the German govern- 
ment to be in fact nothing less than war against the govern- 
ment and people of the United States ; that it formally 
accept the status of belligerent which has thus been thrust 
upon it ; and that it take immediate steps not only to put 
the country in a more thorough state of defense, but also 
to exert all its power and employ all its resources to bring 
the government of the German Empire to terms and end 
the war." 

The president did not, however, stop here. The recent 
Russian revolution had created a new international outlook 
and given him a new vision of the future. In his address, 
therefore, he laid bare the menace to all free peoples of an 
autocratic government like that of Germany and proclaimed 
a world-wide war of democracy against autocracy. The 
lofty idealism of the president's address struck a responsive 
chord in the hearts of lovers of liberty the world over. "It 
is a fearful thing," he said in conclusion, "to lead this great 
peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous 
of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. 
But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight 
for the things which we have always carried nearest our 
hearts, — for democracy, for the right of those who submit 
to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for 
the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal 
dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall 
bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world 
itself at last free. To such a task we can dedicate our lives 



568 The New Nation 

and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything 
that we have, with the pride of those who know that the 
day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood 
and her might for the principles that gave her birth and 
happiness and the peace which she has treasured." 

On April 6, after discussion lasting several days as to the 
form the resolution should take, Congress finally declared 
War with ^^^^ ^ state of war existed between Germany and 
Germany the United States. A few days later the vast sum 
ec are ^£ ggygj^ billion dollars was appropriated for carry- 

ing on the war. This was the largest single appropriation 
made by any legislative body in the history of the world. 
Nearly half of it was to be used in loans to foreign govern- 
ments. The foreign loan was to be raised by bond issues, 
but the president urged that our own expenditures for the 
war be raised as far as possible by increased taxation. Con- 
gress at once undertook the task of providing for a great 
army to be raised by selective draft and of framing new 
revenue laws. 

GENERAL REFERENCES 

J. B. Moore, Prmciples of American Diplomacy, pp. 66-101 ; 
F. A. Ogg, National Progress, Chaps. XVIII-XXI ; Woodrow 
Wilson, Why We Are at War (A collection of the president's ad- 
dresses preceding and following the declaration of war) ; Andre 
Cheradame, The Pan-German Plot Unmasked; Arthur BuUard, 
The Diplomacy of the Great War; J. M. Beck, The Evidence in 
the Case; G. L. Beer, The English-Speaking Peoples; J. B. Scott, 
The American View of the War against the Imperial German 
Government, 2 Vols. ; U. S. Department of State, Diplomatic Corre- 
spondence with Belligerent Governments Relating to Neutral Rights 
and Commerce; The American Year Book (issued annually since 
1910 by Appleton) ; A. B. Hart and A. O. Lovejoy, Handbook of 
the War for Public Speakers, issued by the National Security 
League, contains excellent bibliography on the various phases of 
the war. 



CHAPTER XXXII 
CREATING AN ARMY 

Five days after war was declared a British mission headed 
by Arthur J. Balfour, secretary for foreign affairs, sailed for 
the United States. The party landed at Halifax Loans to 
April 20, and proceeded at once to Washington. *^« ^^^^ 
A few days later a French mission, with former premier 
Viviani and General Joffre at its head, arrived in Hampton 
Roads, where they were received aboard the Mayflower and 
taken to Washington. Missions from other European gov- 
ernments at war with Germany arrived later. 

Although our historic policy of isolation precluded the 
idea of a formal alliance even with England and France, it 
was manifest that the closest cooperation would be necessary 
in order to win the war. The British and French missions 
came over in the first place to negotiate loans, secondly 
to urge upon the United States the importance of sending 
large bodies of troops to Europe, and thirdly, to give us the 
benefit of their three years' military and naval experience. 
For this purpose they brought with them a number of 
military and naval experts. 

England and France had hitherto been largely financing 
their weaker allies and had nearly reached the limit of their 
fimancial resources. Of the $7,000,000,000 appropriated by 
Congress on April 24, $3,000,000,000 was voted for loans 
to foreign governments. Great Britain, France, Italy, 
Belgium, and Rumania each came in for a share, and 
as the war progressed new loans were made amounting in all 
to nearly $10,000,000,000. These loans were not advanced 
in gold, but in credits in American banks with which our 
associates in the war purchased supplies in America. 

569 



570 The New Nation 

The vast sums needed for carrying on the war and for 
loans to the Alhes were raised by the sale of bonds and War 
The Liberty Savings Stamps, and by increased taxation. Five 
Loans loans were floated during the war. The first four 

were known as the Liberty Loans and the last as the Victory 
Loan. All of them were largely oversubscribed, the number 
of subscribers increasing from 4,000,000 in the case of the first 
loan to nearly 22,000,000 in the fourth. The total amount 
raised by these loans was $18,500,000,000. The successive 
Liberty Loan "drives" were organized very skillfully under 
the general direction of Secretary McAdoo and were made the 
occasions of great patriotic demonstrations. Although the 
bonds were regarded as a safe investment, they bore a low 
rate of interest and soon fell below par, but the people con- 
tinued to subscribe as cheerfully as ever, their prime object 
being to win the war. 

The War Revenue Act of October 3, 1917, formed the basis 
of war taxation. It increased greatly the tax on incomes, 
levied an excess-profits tax on corporatic/ns and partnerships, 
increased the internal revenue taxes and import duties, and 
raised the postal rates. During the entire period of the war 
taxation provided about 28 per cent of the total expenditures, 
or 39 per cent if the amount loaned to the Allies be regarded 
as an investment. Few wars have been finianced so largely 
by taxation. 

The most important task before the government was, of 
course, the raising of an army. An act of June 3, 1916, had 
^j^g authorized an army of 175,000 men and made 

Selective important changes in the organization of the 
^^^^ army and the War Department. As soon as war 

was declared. Congress began the consideration of a bill to 
organize an army on the old principle of voluntary enlist- 
ment. The president considered this measure utterly in- 
adequate, and urged that resort be had to the method of a 
selective draft. His interference with pending legislation 



Creating an Army 571 

was resented in the House, where Speaker Clark and the 
Democratic leader, Kitchin of North Carolina, both opposed 
the president's plan. The House Military Committee finally 
adopted it, however, and it was reported to the House by 
Julius Kahn of California, the ranking Repubhcan member 
of the committee. After passing the House the bill was 
amended in the Senate by the friends of Colonel Roosevelt 
so as to authorize the president to raise four divisions by 
voluntary enUstment. It was finally signed by the president 
May 18, 1917, but he let it be known that he did not intend 
to avail himself of the amendment. 

By this act the president was authorized to increase the 
regular army to 287,000 by voluntary enlistment, to take 
into the service of the United States all members of the 
National Guard, and to raise immediately by selective 
draft a force of 500,000 and later, if necessary, successive 
drafts of 500,000. To this end he was authorized to enroll 
all men between the ages of 21 and 31. On June 5 over 
9,500,000 men were enrolled. As the men registered in their 
several districts, each was given a serial number by the local 
boards. 

The first draft took place in Washington, July 20. When a 
certain number was drawn the men having that number in 
the nearly 5000 districts throughout the country were called 
to the service, unless coming within one of the exempt classes. 
The law provided for the exemption of state and federal 
officials, ministers of religion, members of churches for- 
bidding re'sort to arms, munition workers and others engaged 
in industries essential to the war, persons mentally and 
physically unfit, and men on whom others were dependent for 
support. There were special exemption boards to administer 
this part of the act. Contrary to the predictions of its oppo- 
nents, the selective draft was carried out with amazing 
success. Never in all history had so many men been called 
into military service with so little friction or complaint. 



572 The New Nation 

The result confirmed the wisdom of the president in refusing 
the request of ex-President Roosevelt to be permitted to 
raise a volunteer division and lead it to France. 

One of the most serious problems confronting the War 
Department was to train enough officers for the vast army 
^ . . that was to be sent to France. To meet this 

Training 

Camps for need, training camps for officers were opened in 
Officers j^j^g ^^ "Pqj.^ Myer, Plattsburg, and other points, 
where candidates for commissions went through three 
months of intensive training and were then sent to the great 
cantonments to train the men who were called to the colors. 
Sixteen cantonments, each a city in itself, with water-supply 
and sewerage systems, barracks, hospitals, laundries, store- 
houses, and post offices, were constructed during the summer 
in different parts of the country. The work of construction 
was hurried forward, at great expense, it is true, but with 
such success that by September 5 they were ready to receive 
the first drafted men. By the end of the year we had in 
process of organization, including the Regular Army and 
the National Guard, 110,000 officers and over 1,400,000 
men. 

To provide the necessary equipment for such an army was 
a stupendous task. The whole character of warfare had 
M niti ns changed so completely in the three years fight- 
and ing on the western front that we were novices 

Supplies ^^ ^YiQ game. Trench warfare had developed 
every diabolical device that the ingenuity of man could 
devise, and science had devoted its great resources, to an 
extent never before imagined, to the destruction of human 
life. The airplane, gas, and the tank were the most novel 
and important factors in the struggle. Being a non-military, 
not to say pacifist, people, we had made little preparation 
for war, and up to the last had made every effort to keep out 
of the contest that had convulsed Europe. American manu- 
facturers had been making rifles and machine guns for the 



Creating an Army 573 

Allies, and were furnishing the larger part of the ammunition 
used by the French and British, 

But we were deficient in all forms of artillery and in rifles. 
Fortunately, the French were at this tune making more of 
their famous 75's than they needed, and were thus able to 
supply our field artillery. Our army had adopted the Spring- 
field rifle, but the government was not prepared to manu- 
facture it in sufficiently large numbers, while the private arms 
companies were turning out thousands of Enfields a day for 
the British. The two rifles were of different bore, and it was 
considered too risky to send an army to the front with two 
kinds of rifles and cartridges. The machinery and tools 
used in making the Enfield could not be used for the Spring- 
field. The problem was solved by the army experts, who rec- 
ommended a change of bore in the Enfield so as to take the 
Springfield ammunition. The modified Enfield was soon 
turned out in large enough quantities to meet the demands. 

Although the airplane was an American invention, the 
British and French had developed during the first three years 
of the war combat planes that were far superior ^j^^ 
to anything we had. Nevertheless great things Aircraft 
were expected of American inventive genius when '■°g^^™ 
we went into the war. It was thought that we could man- 
ufacture enough airplanes by the spring of 1918 to shell the 
Germans out of their trenches. An Aircraft Production 
Board was organized under the Council of National Defense, 
and Congress appropriated $640,000,000 for the construction 
of army planes. It was announced that we would have 
11,500 planes ready for the campaign of 1918. 

Instead of adopting an English or French model, the board 
decided to design an American plane and an American motor. 
After months of delay the "Liberty Motor" was finally per- 
fected, but when the great German drive began in March, 
1918, we had sent no planes to France, and the pubUc began 
to ask why. After much discussion and senatorial investi- 



574 The New Nation 

gation the president finally appointed Charles E. Hughes, his 
opponent in the campaign of 1916, to investigate the whole 
situation. The report attributed the delay to inefficient 
organization, particularly confusion between the jurisdiction 
of the Aircraft Board and the Signal Corps of the Army ; 
frequent changes in design of the "Liberty Motor" and in the 
type of airplanes ; and labor troubles in the factories, due 
in part to alien enemies. At the date of the report, October 
31, the production of airplanes was proceeding satisfactorily, 
over 9000 planes and 24,000 motors having been turned out. 

A similar delay was experienced in the machine-gun pro- 
gram. The army experts had not been satisfied with either 
English or French models and had been ex- 
tion of the perimenting with new models before we went into 
Y^^ the war. The result was the adoption of the 

Browning gun, now considered the best, a month 
after the declaration of war. The factories were all busy on 
other contracts by this time, and the best arrangements 
that could be made were for the delivery of guns beginning 
in April, 1918. This delay, in addition to that in the air- 
craft program, and reports that the men in the camps were 
suffering from lack of blankets and winter clothing led to a 
general attack in and out of Congress on the war adminis- 
tration in general and on Secretary Baker in particular. 

In January, 1918, Senator Chamberlain of Oregon, Demo- 
cratic chairman of the committee on military affairs, made 
a speech in New York in which he declared that "the mili- 
tary establishment of America has fallen down. It is no 
use to be optimistic about a thing that does not exist. It 
has almost stopped functioning, my friends. Why? Be- 
cause of inefficiency in every bureau and in every depart- 
ment of the government of the United States." Senator 
Chamberlain had already introduced two bills, one to estab- 
lish a new Department of Munitions, and the other to 
establish a War Cabinet to be composed of three distinguished 



Creating an Army 575 

citizens of demonstrated ability. The friends of ex-Pr.esident 
Roosevelt hoped in this way to compel his appointment to a 
high position in the war administration. This attempt to 
take the conduct of the war out of the hands of the Secre- 
tary of War was but the beginning of a general attack on 
the administration, and President Wilson met it promptly. 
The day after Chamberlain's speech was published in the 
papers, the president issued a statement in which he declared 
that the War Department had "performed a task of un- 
paralleled magnitude and difficulty with extraordinary 
promptness and efficiency." He admitted that there had 
been delays and disappointments, but he declared that they 
were insignificant comoared with what had been accom- 
plished. In conclusion he said: "My association and con- 
stant conference with the Secretary of War have taught me 
to regard him as one of the ablest public officials I have 
ever known. The country will soon learn whether he or his 
critics understand the business in hand." 

To meet some of the criticisms, the president appointed 
Edward R. Stettinius, of J. P. Morgan and Company, as 
Surveyor-General of Army Purchases. The attempt to 
create a war cabinet did not meet with much support 
throughout the country, and the measure was not pushed in 
Congress. The president demanded instead that he be 
given greater powers. The full powers he asked were not 
granted, but the Overman bill authorized him to reorganize 
the departments and bureaus of the government so as to 
produce greater efficiency. 

Although Secretary Daniels had been the object of 
criticism and ridicule during his early administration of the 
Navy Department, he made a highly efficient 
war secretary, and in the face of the great achieve- 
ments of the service in safely convoying our troops to 
Europe, criticism gradually gave way to praise. The naval 
appropriation act of 1916 had provided for the construction 



576 The New Nation 

of a number of destroyers, and as the probability of our being 
drawn into the war increased, work on these vessels had 
been pushed to the utmost. 

As it was generally supposed at first that our part in the 
war would be mainly that of combating the German sub- 
marines, most of the efforts of the navy were put forth on 
the construction of destroyers and a new type of motor- 
boat known as the submarine chaser. Hundreds of private 
yachts and other vessels were purchased by the government 
to be used as submarine chasers, transports, hospital ships, 
and for various other purposes. The German ships interned 
in our ports, over 100 in number, were seized by the govern- 
ment, overhauled and repaired, and put into service. 

As soon as we declared war a number of destroyers were 
sent to European waters to cooperate with the British and 
Extent of French navies. They were placed under com- 
Operations niand of Rear Admiral W. S. Sims, who was 
shortly made a vice admiral and placed in command of all 
our ships in European waters. In December, 1917, a division 
of six battleships under Rear Admiral Hugh Rodman joined 
the British Grand Fleet in the North Sea and served with it 
until the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet at Scapa 
Flow, Orkney Islands, November 21, 1918. Although these 
ships constantly sought and repeatedly challenged an en- 
counter with the enemy, the German ships never engaged 
them in battle, but the service during the winter months in 
the North Sea was very severe, and the officers and men had 
to be ever on the alert against submarine attacks. 

Our naval operations outside the North Sea covered the 
Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific. Our task was 
to patrol the high seas, to hunt and destroy German sub- 
marines, and to convoy troop and cargo ships to Europe. 
Our destroyers became very expert in the use of the depth 
bomb, the most important means of combating the submarine 
developed during the war. The plan of establishing a mine 



Creating an Army 577 

barrage across the North Sea, from the Orkney Islands to 
the coast of Norway, was suggested and in large part carried 
out by our navy. The only American warship destroyed 
by the enemy was the destroyer Jacob Jones, which was torpe- 
doed by a submarine off the British coast in December, 1917. 
The magnificent record of the navy is further attested by 
the fact that not a single American troop ship was lost on its 
way to Europe. 

The expansion of the navy during the war, while not as 
great as that of the army, was nevertheless unparalleled in 
history considering the short time we were at war. On 
April 6, 1917, the navy comprised 364 vessels of all kinds, 
4376 officers and 64,680 enlisted men. When the Armistice 
was signed we had in service over 2000 vessels, 32,452 
officers, 507,607 enlisted men, and over 70,000 marines. 

The destruction of ships by the German submarines 
during the two years preceding our entrance into the war 
seriously interfered with our foreign commerce, ^j^^ 
of which only a small part was carried in American Shipping 
ships. In order to develop a merchant marine, thTEmer- 
the United States Shipping Board was estab- gency Fleet 
lished by Act of September 7, 1916. This Board Corporation 
was authorized to purchase, construct, and operate ships 
through the Emergency Fleet Corporation, which was to be 
financed by the government. As soon as we entered the 
war a great ship-building program was adopted, and enor- 
mous sums placed at the disposal of the board. The Emer- 
gency Fleet Corporation constructed the great majority of 
its ships at Hog Island near Philadelphia. 

High wages and the high cost of material made the pro- 
gram of creating a merchant marine exceedingly expensive, 
and charges of waste and extravagance were soon made which 
led to the reorganization of both the Shipping Board and the 
Emergency Fleet Corporation. It took some time for the 
program to get under way, but some idea of the magnitude 



578 The New Nation 

of the work accomplished may be gained from the state- 
ment that on July 4, 1918, as the result of special efforts, 
ninety-five steel, wood, and composite ships, aggregating 
nearly 500,000 tons, were launched. At the time of the 
Armistice, the average monthly construction was about 140 
ships. 

By act of August 29, 1916, Congress provided for the 
creation of a Council of National Defense, composed of the 
Secretaries of War, Navy, Interior, Agriculture, 
zation of Commerce, and Labor. In accordance with the 
National provisions of the act, an advisory commission 
was later organized with Darliel Willard, president 
of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, as chairman. The 
work of this body became of very great importance. It lay 
in the direction of developing and mobiUzing the resources 
of the nation for war. Through various subordinate com- 
mittees it brought into the service of the government many 
of the leading financiers, business men, and technical experts 
of the country. It also suggested to the states the organ- 
ization of state councils, which rendered invaluable service 
in directing the war activities of every description. Through 
these organizations thousands of citizens gave their services 
to the government without cost. 

In order to conserve and increase the food supply for our 
home needs, our armies abroad, and our allies, the Council 
Th Food ^^ National Defense created a committee on food 
Adminis- supply and prices with Herbert C. Hoover as 
tration chairman. He was later made Food Adminis- 

trator and given very extensive powers under an act of 
Congress. In order to encourage the farmers to produce as 
much wheat as possible and to prevent speculators from 
holding it, the government agreed to purchase for the army 
and navy and foreign governments, all that was offered of 
the crop of 1917 at $2.20 a bushel. The price for the 1918 
crop was fixed at S2.00. This fixing of the price in advance 



Creating an Army 579 

greatly stimulated production. Meanwhile a general cam- 
paign for increased production of all food products and for 
economy in the use of food was carried on under the slogan 
"Food will win the war." 

In August, 1917, Harry A. Garfield, president of Williams 
College, was appointed Fuel Administrator, and given 
extensive powers to regulate the price and dis- ^j^^ p^^j 
tribution of coal. The large consumption of coal Administra- 
in the various war industries and the increased ^'^'^ 
demands of shipping, together with the wage demands of 
the miners and the difficulties of transportation, rendered 
prices uncertain and interrupted the normal distribution to 
such an extent that by December there was a serious coal 
shortage, and in January, when the weather became unusually 
severe, the situation grew desperate. It became necessary 
for a time to close manufacturing plants in order that 
private homes might be supplied and the bunkers of ships, 
loaded with suppUes for our troops abroad, be filled. 

The difficulties which the railroads experienced in handling 
coal and in forwarding military and naval supplies to the 
ports led the president in December, 1917, to ^ 
take over all the railroads of the country for the operation of 
period of the war. On December 27, William G. '■^^o^d^ 
McAdoo, secretary of the treasury, was appointed Director- 
General of Railroads with full power to operate them. 
Government manage m^ent proved expensive, but the object 
was to move coal, military supplies, and troops, and not to 
make money for the roads. The government had to make 
good the losses, but the centralized railroad administration 
was necessary to win the war. 

On June 13, 1917, General John J. Pershing, who had been 
selected to command the American Expeditionary Force, 
arrived in France with a small staff and was followed in 
June and July by the First Division of Regulars, to which 
was attached a regiment of Marines. An American division, 



580 



The New Nation 



and the 
First 
Division 
arrive in 
France 



according to the organization now adopted, consisted of four 

regiments of infantry each about 3500 strong, three of artil- 

Pershing l^ry, machine-gun companies, engineei-s, a signal 
battaUon, and other auxihary units, making a 
total strength of about 28,000 men. As rap- 
idly as the troops arrived they were sent to 
training camps, while General Pershing and 

the members of his 

staff set to work to 

study conditions at 

the front and to solve 

the great problem of 

transporting troops 

and supplies from the 

ports of debarkation 

to the battle line. 

By the end of the 

year there were 

176,665 American 

troops in France. 

Only one division 

had so far taken po- 
sitions in the front 

lines. 

When we entered 

the war the general 

impression in Amer- 
ica was that the 

Allies needed food 

and munitions more 

than men, and that 

our principal task 

would be to supply 

their needs and to use our navy in convoying cargo ships 

and overcoming the German submariue^, ^ Pershing and the 




General John J. Pershing. 



Creating an Army 581 

First Division were sent over to encourage the Allies and 
let them see that we were really in the war. The historic 
debt of America to France was gracefully ac- Prepara- 
knowledged by Pershing, himself of Alsatian ^°^^ ^°^ 
ancestry, when he placed a wreath on the tomb American 
of the great Frenchman who had so nobly come ^™y *^ 
to our aid during the Revolution. The remark 
attributed to him on this occasion, " Lafayette, we are 
here," struck a responsive chord in the heart of every 
Frenchman, and the appearance of a battalion of the 16th 
Infantry on parade in the streets of Paris on the 4th of 
July created great enthusiasm. 

But before the end of the year a series of changes took 
place which made the outlook for the Allies appear very dark. 
By September it was evident that Russia could not keep up 
the fight much longer, and in October the Austrians with 
German assistance broke through the Italian lines, cap- 
tured 300,000 men, and hurled the rest of the army back to 
the Piave River. Ten French and British divisions were at 
once withdrawn from the western front and sent to the aid 
of the Italians. Germany immediately began transferring 
divisions from the Russian and Italian fronts to the West. 
It was evident that the United States would have to send 
a far larger force to France than had been expected, and 
Pershing began making plans for throwing an American army 
of 1,000,000 men into the hne in time to participate in the 
campaign of 1918. 

The first problem was to decide upon the sector in which 
this force was to be employed. As the British were deter- 
mined to guard the Channel ports, Flanders was 
their natural field of operations, while the French un^s^7** 
claimed the honor of holding the center and communi- 
guarding the main road to Paris. There re- *'**'°° 
mained, however, the Lorraine sector extending from 
Verdun southward. It was agreed that this should be 



582 



The New Nation 



handed over to the Americans as rapidly as the troops were 
trained and ready for the front hnes. 

As the Channel ports were taxed to their limit by the 
British and the railroads of northern France were scarcely 
adequate to meet the demands of the British and French 
armies, it was necessary for the American army to uge the 
ports of western France and the east and west railroad lines 





46000 

^844000 

4000 

^.J."'' 1000 

'^ 3^/^!!!-- 11000 

><o-^* . 67000 

^■^'^^•i^^c/- 02000 

/•^^?c»r^Z- - — '°°° 



X^*-^ "^ ^^S\o St. '>■■.■ 



■ — 13000 
— 791000 
■■^108000 

4000 

olSordeaux— 50000 
Marsei lle — JOOO' 




Movement of Troops to Great Britain and France. 



south of Paris. The chief ports used by the Americans were 
Brest, St. Nazaire, and Bordeaux. Brest became the 
principal port of debarkation. Over a third of the troops 
sent directly to France were landed there. Most of the 
supplies went to the more southern ports. 

The port and railroad facilities were at first wholly in- 
adequate for the accommodation of the troops and supplies 
which it was proposed to send to France. Vast docks and 
warehouses were rapidly constructed and over 900 miles 
of railroad were built, nearly all in terminals and multiple 
tracks. The French government handed over to the 
American army the control and operation of railroad lines 
extending from the west coast to the battle front, so that 



Creating an Army 583 

American troops were not dependent upon the Allies for 
supplies, but upon their own government. 

General Pershing made a careful study of the methods 
employed by the French and British in training combat 
troops, and adopted a similar scheme for our Training in 
men. Schools of instruction for officers and men France 
in all branches of the service were established. Promising 
soldiers were taken from the ranks and sent to these schools. 
Over 10,000 who went to France as enlisted men won com- 
missions in this way. The British and French had grown so 
accustomed to trench warfare that their training was almost 
entirely of a defensive character. 

General Pershing determined that the American army 
should avoid this error and be trained for open warfare, for 
only by taking the offensive could the war be won. In his 
instructions he said: "Trench warfare naturally gives 
prominence to the defensive as opposed to the offensive. 
To guard against this, the basis of instruction should be 
essentially the offensive both in spirit and in practice. The 
defensive is accepted only to prepare for future offensive." 
He urged the War Department to see that target practice and 
open warfare be emphasized in the training camps in the 
United States, and that training in trench warfare be de- 
ferred until the troops reached France. This system of 
training undoubtedly promoted the efficiency of our troops 
in battle and made possible the rapidity of movement when 
the German lines were finally broken. 

The Russian revolution and the abdication of the Czar 
had occurred in March, 1917, shortly before we entered the 
war. The old government had been lukewarm ^j^^ 
and many of the higher army officers pro-German. Russian 
The new republican government was anti-German *^° ^ 
and great things were expected of the army under Kerensky, 
the brilliant minister of war. He tried to arouse the enthu- 
siasm of the nation by another drive in GaUcia. It started 



584 



The New Nation 



off brilliantly, but before the end of July it had ended in 
failure as a result of social and economic demoralization at 
home. Kerensky now became prime minister, but the Ger- 
man capture of Riga early in September undermined his 
prestige, and in November the Bolshevist revolution placed 
Lenin and Trotsky in power. In December they signed 
an armistice with Germany, and on March 3, 1918, the 




D PART OF 28 



The Five German Offensives of 1918. 

treaty of Brest-Litovsk was concluded. Russia had deserted 
her allies, and Germany was free to concentrate all her 
efforts on the western front. 

In anticipatibn of peace 'with Russia the Germans had 
already shifted a large number of divisions from the eastern 
to the western front. On March 21 the long expected blow 
fell. The plan of Ludendorff, who was now supposed to be 
the directing genius of the German army., was to push the 



Creating an Army 585 

British lines back in front of Cambrai, break through the 
St. Qucntin sector, advance and seize Amiens, where the 
raih'oads serving the British and French hnes The 
centered. The British would thus be forced German 
back toward the Channel and the way opened March, 
to Paris. Hindenburg boasted that he would ^9^^- 
reach Paris by April 1. 

The German attack on the British lines was probably the 
most formidable onslaught in history. A heavy mist con- 
cealed their movements until they reached the British 
lines. The fifth army under General Gough was routed, 
but the third army under General Sir JuHan Byng held its 
ground. The Germans advanced so rapidly that they got 
beyond the support of their artillery and suffered heavy 
losses, but they came on in overwhelming numbers. When 
the British lines gave way before St. Quentin, a battalion of 
American engineers, who were building a bridge over the 
Somme, took up their guns and fought with great bravery 
against the oncoming hordes. During the next week the 
British contested every foot of ground, but their Hnes were 
pushed back to within ten miles of Amiens when the French 
came to their assistance and helped them to stop the advance, 
notwithstanding the desperate efforts of the Germans to 
capture this objective. The Germans had advanced 35 miles 
at the farthest point. 

At the time of the March drive there were only 300,000 
Americaai troops in France. British and French reserves 
had been so largely drawn upon that defeat poch 
appeared inevitable unless the movement of appointed 
troops across the Atlantic could be greatly accel- mander in 
erated. At a meeting of the Supreme War Coun- ^^^^ 
cil, at which Secretary Baker, General Pershing, and General 
Bliss were present, it was agreed that all available American 
ships and all the ships Great Britain could spare should be 
devoted to rushing American infantry and machine-gun units 



586 



The New Nation 



to France, and that American units should, in the discre- 
tion of General Pershing, be assigned temporarily to British 
and French divisions so as to render the greatest mili- 
tary assistance. This agreement was approved by the 
president. 

A few days later, April 3, another step of even greater im- 
portance was taken when General Foch was appointed 

Commander in Chief of 
the British, French, and 
American armies. For six 
months President Wilson 
had been urging through 
Colonel House the neces- 
sity of a unified com- 
mand, but British public 
opinion was averse to the 
idea of placing their army 
under a foreign com- 
mander and preferred to 
act through the AlHed 
War Council at Versailles. 
The Allied armies had 
suffered from lack of co- 
ordination, and in the 
face of an almost over- 
whelming disaster the British gave way and consented to 
the plan which President Wilson and Secretary Baker now 
urged upon them. 

When the movement against Amiens came to a stand, the 
Germans suddenly launched another formidable attack, 
April 9, against the British lines south of Ypres. 
They captured Armentieres and advanced ten 
miles toward Hazebrooick, an important railroad 
point in the British lines of communication with 
the Channel ports. This was probably the darkest period 




Copyright bg Underwood and Underwood. 
Geneeal Ferdinand Foch. 



The race 
between 
Hindenburg 
and Wilson 



Creating an Army 587 

of the war for the British, and General Haig, the British 
commander, made the following appeal to his troops. After 
expressing admiration for the courage and devotion with 
which they had met the German onslaught, he said : "Many 
among us are now tired. To those I would say that Victory 
will belong to the side that holds out longest. The French 
army is moving rapidly and in great force to our support. 
There is no other course open to us but to fight it out. Every 
position must be held to the last man. There must be no 
retirement. With our backs to the wall, and believing in the 
justice of our cause, each one of us must fight to the end. 
The safety of our homes and the freedom of mankind depend 
alike upon the conduct of each one of us at this critical 
moment." 

The Germans had pushed forward to within four or five 
miles of Hazebrouck when the French reenforcements arrived 
and once more enabled the British to check the enemy's ad- 
vance. Meanwhile the Germans had concentrated their 
forces around Ypres, and for three weeks made assault after 
assault until they were finally repulsed with terrific slaughter 
on April 29. 

It was evident that the Germans were straining every 
nerve to end the war before large numbers of Americans 
could get into it. Lloyd George appealed to the United 
States to throw its man power into the line of battle with all 
possible speed. He described the struggle as a race between 
Wilson and Hindenburg. President Wilson was putting 
forth every effort to save the day. In a speech at Baltimore, 
April 6, he declared that the situation called for — "Force, 
force to the utmost, force without stint or lunit, the righteous 
and triumphant force which shall make right the law of the 
world and cast every selfish dominion down in the dust." 
From that time until the armistice American troops were 
rushed to France at the rate of over 250,000 a month. The 
maximum was 297,000 in July. At the date of the armistice 



588 The New Nation 

we had over 2,000,000 troops in France. Small bodies of 
troops had also been sent to Italy and Russia. 

GENERAL REFERENCES 

C J. H. Hayes, A Brief History of the Great War; F. H. Simonds, 
History of the World War; J. S. Bassett, Our War with Germany; 
J. B. McMaster, The United States in the World War; Rear-Admiral 
W. S. Sims, The Victory at Sea; E. N. Hurley, The New Merchant 
Marine; W. F. Willoughby, Government Organization in War Time 
and After; Woodrow Wilson, In Our First Year of War, Messages 
and Addresses to the Congress and the People; The American Year 
Book, 1917, 1918. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

AMERICA IN ACTION 

In March, 1918, a few American divisions were occupying 
trenches in quiet sectors. At an early stage of the German 
drive Pershing went to Foch's headquarters to American 
tender the services of his troops and to say that ^^^^ ''^ **^® 
"the American people would be proud to be en- French 
gaged in the greatest battle in history." A few armies 
days later the First Division under command of Major 
General Bullard marched into Picardy and took over from 
the French a part of the Montdidier sector. On May 28 
they advanced with great dash and captured the heights 
of Cantigny, the most advanced salient of the German 
line. 

As this was the first independent action of American troops, 
the Germans exhausted every effort to check them, and for 
the next three days concentrated guns of all calibers on the 
American position, while their infantry advanced again and 
again to recover the position. The desperate counter attacks 
of the Germans gave the affair at Cantigny an importance 
out of proportion to the numbers engaged, and as the first 
test of the fighting capacity of our troops it was greeted with 
enthusiasm by the French and British press. 

The third German offensive of 1918 began May 27 with a 
successful attack on the strong French position of Chemin 
des Dames. The next day the enemy crossed the ^j^^ second 
Aisne on a front of 25 miles and reached the Vesle battle of 
at Fismes. They made equally rapid advances * ^ "°® 
during the next three days, reaching the Marne near Chateau- 
Thierry on May 31. They had advanced 32 miles on the 

' 589 



590 



The New Nation 



direct road to Paris and the wearied French soldiers had been 
driven across the river when a machine-gun battahon of 
the Third American Division arrived in motor trucks at the 
bridge over which the Germans were already beginning to 




Line ofJul^ 1 8 191S — 
" " Nov. It •• 



The War on the Western Front. 
German lines on July 18 and November 11, 1918. 

cross, and quickly taking position with the French hurled 
the enemy back with heavy losses. On June 1 the rest 
of the Third Division began arriving and took position from 



America in Action 591 

Chateau-Thierry eastward, while the Second Division took 
its place in the line northwest of Chateau-Thierry. 

The Germans soon shifted their attack to the west and 
came into contact with the Second Division. This division, 
which contained two regiments of Marines, not only checked 
the German advance, but immediately counter-attacked 
with great spirit. On June 6 the Marines captured the town 
of Bouresches and began their attack on Belleau Wood, an 
exceedingly strong position, from which they drove the 
Germans after several days of the severest fighting. On 
July 1 the infantry brigade, not to be outdone by the Marines, 
captured Vaux. 

After their check at the Marne the Germans made an 
unsuccessful sidestep to the north. On June 9 they launched 
a fourth drive on a 16-mile front between Noyon and Mont- 
didier, but Foch quickly concentrated troops to meet it, 
and the Germans did not penetrate more than five miles at 
any point. 

Baffled at every turn in their desperate efforts to reach 
Paris and end the war, the Germans now paused a full 
month, planning a final stroke. When their ^j^^ j^^^ 
fifth and last drive was launched north and west German 
of Rheims, July 15, there were over 1,200,000 "^^^si^e 
American troops in France, so that Foch at last had enough 
troops to provide a considerable force of reserves, and he was 
ready when the attack began. At midnight, July 14, Bas- 
tille Day, the Germans opened a terrific bombardment on a 
30-mile front with Rheims as the center, and at 5.25 on the 
morning of the 15th they went over the top. 

North of Rheims the French, having received from a 
prisoner information of the attack, withdrew from their first 
line trenches, so the artillery fire did them no harm and the 
German attack was futile. Between Rheims and Chateau- 
Thierry the Germans met with greater success and succeeded 
in crossing the Marne at several points. On the right of our 



592 



The New Nation 



Third Division the French gave way and advised our com- 
mander to do the same, but General Dickman refused to ac- 
cept this advice and announced that he was going to counter- 
attack. "On this occasion," General Pershing says, "a 
single regiment of the Third Division wrote one of the most 
brilliant pages in our military annals. It prevented the 
crossing at certain points on its front, while on either flank the 



v^ 




O 

Paris 



.e> ^<ne 28.29- 

,•%* 82-89.90-91 (6 I 



C^» 



ST.MIHIEL SEPT. 12.1 

;D; 1-2-4-5-2G.42-82.89.9 
■ 35-78-60-91) OTOUl 



American Divisions Engaged from July 18 to November 11, 1918. 



Germans who had gained a footing pressed forward. Our 
men, firing in three directions, met the German attacks with 
counter-attacks at critical points and succeeded in throwing 
two German divisions into complete confusion, capturing 
600 prisoners." 

The German drive lost its force on the third day, its 
farthest advance being only 4 miles. Meanwhile Foch had 



America in Action 593 

been preparing a counter-stroke, and on July 18 he drove 
a wedge into the west side of the Marne saUent south of 
Soissons. In this attack the place of honor was ^^^.j^ ^^^j^^^ 
assigned to the First and Second American the offen- 
Divisions and the First French Moroccan Divi- ^'^® 
sion. Without any preliminary bombardment these three 
divisions broke through the enemy's lines and advanced to 
the heights south of Soissons, cutting important communica- 
tions leading into the salient. 

The Germans quickly reahzed their precarious situation 
and for the second time began a general retreat from the 
Marne. The turning point in the world war had been 
reached. From July 18 to November 11 the Germans were 
on the defensive, and Foch delivered blow after blow with 
quickness and precision. On the west side of the Marne 
salient, ?outh of the Second Division, the Fourth, Twenty- 
Sixth, and Forty-Second (Rainbow Division) were engaged 
under Major General Hunter Liggett, commander of the 
First American Corps, while east of Chateau-Thierry the 
Third, Thirty-Second, and parts of the Twenty-Eighth did 
valiant service under Major General Robert Lee Bullard, 
commander of the Third Corps. By August 6 the French 
and American divisions had reached the Vesle, and the Marne 
saUent was completely wiped out. On that day Foch was 
given a Marshal's baton, the highest military distinction a 
French soldier can attain. The Americans formed about 
one third of the force engaged in this operation, and every- 
where acquitted themselves with honor. 

On August 8 Foch began a new offensive in the north 
to recover the ground lost to the Germans in their March 
drive towards Amiens. By means of tanks, Qgrman 
whippets, and armored cars the British made morale 
steady inroads on the German lines and pene- '"■®*^°8 
trated at several points as far as the Hindenburg system. 
The attack was finally extended along a front of 140 miles 



594 The New Nation 

from Rheims to Ypres until finally stopped by the September 
rains. In this advance American divisions were engaged 
at intervals all along the line. Most of the territory gained 
by the Germans earlier in the year had been recovered. In 
vain did the German General Staff announce that they were 
making '"a strategical retreat as planned." Both soldiers 
and civilians began to realize that the war was going- against 
them. German morale was beginning to break. 

The dispersion of the American divisions among the 
British and French forces all along the line had been agreed 
to by General Pershing to meet the emergency 
of the St. created by the German drive. That emergency 
Mihiei having now passed, the time had come for organ- 

izing a distinctively American army. It was 
agreed, therefore, that General Pershing should take over the 
Woevre sector, which extended from a point five miles east 
of the Moselle to Verdun. Later the American sector was 
enlarged so as to include the line north of Verdun as far west 
as the Argonne Forest. This sector included the famous St. 
Mihiei salient which the Germans had held for four years, 
and which Pershing now proposed to take. The reduction 
of this salient would free the railroad running north through 
St. Mihiei to Verdun, and open the way for an attack 
against the Metz-Sedan Railroad, which was vital to the 
German armies west of Verdun, and would threaten the Briey 
iron basin, the output of which was essential to the produc- 
tion of arms and munitions. 

The First American Army, which now assembled under 
the personal command of Pershing, comprised about 500,000 
men, including 70,000 French. On the southern side of the 
salient east of the town of St. Mihiei, was deployed the 
Fourth Corps, commanded by Major General Joseph T. 
Dickman, with the First, Forty-Second, and Eighty-Ninth 
divisions; on their right stretched the First Corps, com- 
manded by Major General Liggett, with the Second, Fifth, 



America in Action 



595 



Ninetieth, and Eighty-Second divisions. On the west face 
of the saHent the Fifth Corps was stationed, Major General 
George H. Cameron commanding, with the Twenty -sixth 
and Fourth American divisions, and the Fifteenth French 
Colonial Division. Three small French divisions were oppo- 
site the tip of the salient, and were to occupy St. Mihiel 
when the Germans retired. 

By September 12 all was ready for the attack, which was 
to be made along the entire south face of the salient. After 



10SUomet«ra 



FORTIFIED 

AREA OF 

METZ 




Movement of American Divisions in the St. Mihiel Drive. 



a heavj'- bombardment the Americans went over the top and 
dashed forward with great spirit. Foreseeing what was in 
store for them, the Germans had already begun to retire 
from the tip of the salient. On the west side the Twenty- 
Sixth Division had been ordered to advance southeastward 
to Vigneulles. Here it was met by the First Division at 
daylight September 13. The Amerit^an advance was so 
rapid that they captured 16,000 German prisoners, 443 



596 The New Ncation 

guns, and large stores of supplies. American casualties 
totaled less than 7000. By the end of the second day all 
objectives had been reached, and during the next two days 
the line was advanced still farther. The St. Mihiel action 
demonstrated the superiority of American troops over their 
adversaries in open warfare, and did more than any form of 
propaganda to break down the German morale. 

After the reduction of the St. Mihiel salient the Germans 
expected an advance on Metz and the Briey iron fields, 
'Ti. nir but Foch and Pershing had already decided that 

The Meuse- ^ -^ _ 

Argonne the American forces should make a drive between 
Campaign ^-^^ River Meuse and the Argonne Forest with 
Sedan, through which passed the main railroad lines supply- 
ing the German armies on the Aisne, as their ultimate objec- 
tive. Foch did not believe that the attack could be pushed 
much beyond Montfaucon before winter, and that the objec- 
tive could not be reached before the next year. Montfaucon 
is on a high hill midway between the Meuse and the Argonne 
Forest. A French army was to advance west of the Argonne 
Forest and keep pace with the Americans. To the north the 
Pritish were to strike, so that Foch was using on the entire 
German line the tactics he had so successfully employed in 
reducing smaller salients, that is, closing in on the ends like a 
pair of huge pincers. 

The Mcuse-Argonne front had been held by the Germans 
with little change since 1914, and was protected by a devas- 
tated zone and by a succession of defenses constructed with 
great ingenuity. The terrain over which the Americans 
were to advance was triangular in shape, the base line which 
they held being about 27 miles long, and Sedan at the apex 
being about 34 miles distant. At the southwest corner of 
the triangle was the Argonne Forest, stretching out about 
8 miles on the base line and extending north 12 miles between 
the Aire and Aisne rivers to Grandpr6. 

The Argonne Forest was considered impregnable. The 



America in Action 



597 



undergrowth was dense and there were rocky ravines and 
huge boulders affording excellent defensive positions for 
machine guns. The Germans had fortified it with the 
greatest care. The country between the forest and the 
Meuse was more open but it contained many wooded heights, 



MEUSE - ARGONNE 
OFFENSIVE 




Meuse-Argonne Offensive. 
The mimbers show the positions of the American Divisions engaged at the 
dates indicated. 

all of which the Germans had fortified with unusual skill. 
They had three strong lines of defense: the first a line 



598 The New Nation 

running east and west through Montfaucon; second, the 
Kriemhilde-Stellung, a part of the Hindenburg system, 
running from Grandpre through Romagne and Cunel to 
Brieulles; and third, a hne running through the wooded 
heights of Barricourt. 

The first point of attack was Montfaucon. If this position 
could be carried and the French army west of the Argonne 
First phase advanced at the same time, the Germans would be 
of the forced from the forest without our troops having 

battle ^Q deliver a heavy attack in that difficult region. 

At 5.30 on the morning of September 26, after several hours 
of artillery fire, the Americans went over the top and ad- 
vanced rapidly to the right and left of Montfaucon, which 
they thus outflanked and captured after a hard fight by noon 
of the second day. The Germans had been taken by sur- 
prise, but they soon threw in new divisions, and after the 
third day the American advance slackened, and on October 
first it came almost to a stop. The Hindenburg line had 
been reached and preparations had to be made for a general 
assault all along the line. 

During the next two weeks hard fighting continued, but 
it consisted only of local attacks for the purpose of adjusting 
certain positions preparatory to the gener^Jattack. During 
this period the Argonne Forest was cleared of Germans. 
The Americans would advance east of the forest until they 
outflanked the Germans and then turn in and capture 
the artillery and machine-gun positions. This process was 
repeated again and again until the forest was cleared. 

It was while engaged in one of these actions that Ser- 
geant York, of the Eighty-Second Division, performed the 
exploit for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor. 
Followed by a few men of his platoon, which had suf- 
fered heavy casualties, he fearlessly charged a machine-gun 
nest, capturing 4 officers, 128 men, and several guns. It 
was also in the Argonne Forest that the celebrated "Lost 



America in Action 599 

Battalion" immortalized itself. This battalion, composed 
of part of the 308th Infantry and one company of the 307th, 
pushed ahead of the troops on its right and left and gained its 
objective only to find itself surrounded. Its commander, 
Major Whittlesey, decided to hold his ground and refused to 
surrender. When rescued from their perilous position after 
being separated from the rest of the army for five days, they 
were without water and food and their ammunition was 
running low. The Seventy-Seventh Division, to which had 
been intrusted the main work of " mopping up " the Argonne, 
reached Grandpre October 10 and was reheved by the 
Seventy-Eighth. 

On October 14 the main attack was made on the Hinden- 
burg Line. The struggle for the heights of Romagne and 
Cunel was particularly severe, and so many of our second 
men were killed in this attack that Romagne was P^^ase 
later chosen as the place for our Meuse-Argonne cemetery. 
The Hindenburg system was broken on the first day of the 
fight, and our troops advanced steadily day after day until 
they were in front of the third German line of defense on the 
heights of Barricourt. Meanwhile General Pershing had 
extended his line east of the Meuse, where the well-placed 
German artillery was raking his flank. This drive began 
October 8 and continued until the Armistice. 

By the end of October the American army had advanced 
nearly 15 miles, captured 18,600 prisoners, 370 cannon, 1000 
machine guns, and a mass of material, and completely 
broken the morale of the Germans. 

The rapid advance of the American army during the week 
of October 14 to 21 gave rise to the hope that the war might 
be brought to an end in 1918 instead of 1919, the Third 
date set by the Allied commanders at the be- P^^^e 
ginning of the campaign. On October 21 General Pershing 
gave orders to prepare for a decisive drive on the 28th. The 
date was later changed to November 1 in order that the 



600 The New Nation 

French army, which had been advancing west of the Argonne 
Forest, might be ready to cooperate. In this last drive the 
American army rehed on its own equipment and resources. 
The French artillery, aviation, and technical troops, which 
had assisted in previous operations, had been largely re- 
placed by our own organizations. 

On the morning of November 1, after two hours of artillery 
fire, the attack began all along the line. The infantry 
advanced with great rapidity followed closely by the artillery. 
By nightfall the heights of Barricourt had been captured and 
the last German line carried. The Lille-Metz railroad, one 
of the. vital arteries of German supply, had been cut by our 
artillery, and Hindenburg realized, to quote General Persh- 
ing's final report, that "nothing but a cessation of hostilities 
could save his armies from complete disaster." 

While the terms of the proposed armistice were being 
discussed, the advance continued. On November 7 our 
troops reached the heights south of Sedan, where they halted 
out of courtesy to the French. To the latter was given the 
honor of entering this town where Louis Napoleon's army had 
surrendered to the Germans in 1870. During the remaining 
days of the fighting our troops extended their lines on the 
east bank of the Meuse and advanced towards the Briey 
iron basin. These operations were continued until 11 a.m., 
November 11, when the Armistice went into effect. 

In summing up the campaign Colonel Ayres makes the 
following interesting comparison : "In some ways the Meuse- 
Argonne offers an interesting resemblance to the Battle of 
the Wilderness, fought from May 5 to 12, 1864, in the Civil 
War. Both were fought over a terrain covered with tangled 
woods and underbrush. The Wilderness was regarded as a long 
battle, marked by slow progress, against obstinate resistance, 
with very heavy casualties. Here the similarity ends. The 
Meuse-Argonne lasted six times as long as the Battle of the 
Wilderness. Twelve times as many American troops were 



America in Action 601 

engaged as were on the Union side. They used in the action 
ten times as many guns and fired about one hundred times 
as many rounds of artillery ammunition. The actual weight 
of the ammunition fired was greater than that used by the 
Union forces during the entire Civil War. Casualties were 
perhaps four times as heavy as among the Northern troops 
in the Battle of the Wilderness. The Battle of the Meuse- 
Argonne was beyond compare the greatest ever fought by 
American troops, and there have been few, if any, greater 
battles in the history of the world." 

The Meuse-Argonne fight lasted 47 days, and 1,200,000 
American troops were engaged. The losses were very 
heavy, but without them the war would have American 
lasted another year, entailing untold suffering losses 
throughout the belligerent countries and probably costing 
the lives of fully as many soldiers in the end. 

The total battle casualties in the American Expeditionary 
Forces during the entire period of the war, the great majority 
of them in the Meuse-Argonne campaign, were as follows : 

Killed in action 34,593 

Died of wounds 13,958 

Total dead 48,551 

Wounded severely . 83,390 

Wounded slightly 91,189 

Wounded, degree undetermined 46,480 

Total wounded 221,059 / 

For several months prior to the Armistice the discussion 
of the terms on which the United States and the Allies would 
be willing to make peace had been going on. On 
January 5, 1918, Lloyd George, the British tions lead- 
Premier, made a notable speech in which he out- *°g *° . 

ArmisticG 

lined the war aims of Great Britain. He declared 
the following conditions to be essential to a lasting peace: 
"First, the sanctity of treaties must be re-established; 
secondly, a territorial settlement must be secured^ based on 



602 The New Nation 

the right of self-determination or the consent of the governed ; 
and lastly, we must seek, by the creation of some inter- 
national organization, to limit the burden of armaments and 
diminish the probability of war." 

A few days later, January 8, President Wilson appeared 
before both houses of Congress and outlined with greater 
The detail than Lloyd George the principles on which 

Fotirteen he proposed to base a world peace. The famous 
oints Fourteen Points which he announced on this occa- 

sion became the basis of subsequent discussion and were 
finally accepted by Germany and embodied in the Armistice. 
They contained the following proposals : (1) open diplomacy, 
(2) the freedom of the seas, (3) the equality of trade con- 
ditions among all nations, (4) the reduction of armaments, 
(5) the adjustment of colonial claims in accordance with the 
interests of the populations concerned, (6) the evacuation of 
Russian territory, (7) the evacuation and restoration of 
Belgium, (8) the restoration of Alsace-Lorraine to France, 
(9) the adjustment of the frontiers of Italy along lines of 
nationality, (10) the granting of the freest opportunity for 
autonomous development to the peoples of Austria-Hungary, 
(11) the evacuation and independence of Rumania, Serbia, 
and Montenegro, and the granting to Serbia of free access 
to the sea, (12) autonomy for the subject nationalities under 
Turkish rule, (13) an independent Polish state with free 
access to the sea, and (14) a general association of nations 
"formed under specific covenants for the purpose of afford- 
ing mutual guarantees of political independence and terri- 
torial integrity to great and small States alike." 

Both the German Chancellor and the Austro-Hungarian 
Minister of Foreign Affairs replied to the speeches of Lloyd 
George and President Wilson. They professed their willing- 
ness to accede to certain points, but others they utterly re- 
jected. From now on President Wilson became more and 
more the spokesman of the Alhes. In fact, the moral leader- 



America in Action 603 

ship of the United States played as great a part in winning 
the war as the initiative and dash of our soldiers. In a 
speech at Baltimore on April 6, the anniversary The moral 
of our entrance into the war, and in a speech leadership 
at Mt. Vernon on July 4, the president further united 
defined "the ends for which the associated peoples states 
of the world are fighting," and finally, on September 27 in 
New York he declared : "We are all agreed that there can be 
no peace obtained by any kind of bargain or compromise with 
the governments of the Central Empires. . . . They have 
convinced us that they are without honor and do not intend 
justice. They observe no covenants, accept no principle but 
force and their own interest. We cannot come to terms with 
them. They have made it impossible. The German p6ople 
must by this time be fully aware that we cannot accept the 
word of those who forced this war upon us. We do not think 
the same thoughts or speak the same language of agreement." 
This and other utterances of the president made it plain that 
sweeping constitutional changes in Germany, if not the com- 
plete overthrow of the Kaiser, must precede further nego- 
tiations for peace. 

On October 4 the German ministry resigned and Prince 
Maximilian of Baden became chancellor. He immediately 
dispatched a note to Washington requesting 
President Wilson to take steps for the calling of a °^ 

peace conference, and stating that the German Government 
"accepts as a basis for peace negotiations the program laid 
down by the President of the United States in his message 
to Congress of January 8, 1918, and in his later pronounce- 
ments, especially in his address of September 27." 

After demanding and receiving assurances to the effect 
that Prince Maximilian was speaking for the German 
people and that constitutional changes had been enacted 
which made the ministry dependent upon the Reichstag 
instead of upon the Emperor, the president finally expressed 



604 The New Nation 

his willingness to take up with the associated governments 
the question of an armistice. Meanwhile, Germany's 
allies were rapidly deserting her. On September 30 Bul- 
garia surrendered. A month later, October 31, Turkey 
signed an armistice, and finally, on November 4, the rapidly 
disintegrating Austro-Hungarian monarchy did the same. 

The terms of the Armistice were drawn up by the Inter- 
allied Council at Versailles on November 5, and the docu- 
Flight of ment was delivered to the Germans on the 7th. 
the Kaiser They were given 72 hours to accept or reject it. 
ance of the The terms were very severe. Germany was re- 
Armistice quired immediately to evacuate Belgium, France, 
Alsace-Lorraine, and Luxemburg; to withdraw her armies 
from the entire territory on the left bank of the Rhine, and 
from Russia, Austria-Hungary, Rumania, and Turkey; she 
was to surrender enormous quantities of heavy artillery and 
airplanes, all her submarines, and most of her battleships, 
cruisers, and destroyers. 

The world could scarcely believe that the collapse of 
Germany was so complete that she would accept these terms, 
and the decision was awaited with intense interest. On the 
9th the Kaiser abdicated, and on the following day he igno- 
miniously fled across the border into Holland. On November 
11 at 5 A.M. the Armistice was signed by the German dele- 
gates and Marshal Foch, and it went into effect at 11 
o'clock that day. 

It was agreed that the peace conference should meet at 

Paris, and President Wilson considered the issues involved 

of such magnitude that he decided to head the 

President American delegation himself. Great Britain, 

decides to France, and Italy were to be represented by their 

go to Paris i j i ./ 

premiers, and it was fitting that the United States 
should be represented by its most responsible leader, who 
furthermore had formulated, with the consent of the Allies, 
the principles upon which the peace was to be made. 



America in Action 605 

But the decision of the president to go to Paris was with- 
out precedent in our history, and, therefore, it met with 
criticism and opposition. When he announced the names of 
the commissioners who were to assist him in the negotiations, 
the criticism became even more outspoken and severe. 
They were Secretary of State Lansing, Henry White, former 
Ambassador to France, Colonel E. M. House, and General 
Tasker H. Bliss. Many people thought that the president 
should have taken Root, or Roosevelt, or Taft, but in the 
Senate there was deep resentment that he had not selected 
any members of that body to accompany him. President 
McKinley had appointed three Senators as members of the 
commission of five that negotiated the treaty of Paris at the 
close of the Spanish War, but that had been regarded as a 
bad precedent. With that exception Senators had never 
taken part in the negotiation of a treaty. 

The Republican leaders who had carried the congressional 
elections in November, notwithstanding the president's 
appeal to the country for a Democratic Congress on whose 
support he could rely, seized the opportunity to attack him. 
As soon as he sailed for France, Senator Sherman introduced 
a resolution declaring the presidency vacant, and Senator 
Knox offered another declaring that the conference should 
confine itself solely to the restoration of peace, and that the 
proposed League of Nations should be reserved for con- 
sideration at some time in the future. 

While his enemies in the Senate were busily organizing 

all the forces of opposition against him, the president was 

welcomed by the war-weary peoples of Europe The moral 

with demonstrations of genuine enthusiasm such as *®*^f.^^^^P 
" . . .01 Wilson 

had been the lot of few men in history to receive, acclaimed 
He had during the past months been voicing the ^^ ^^^ 
longings of the inarticulate masses for a peace Europe 
that would end war and establish justice as the rule of con- 
duct between the nations of the world, great and small alike. 



()0G 



The New Nation 



No mortal man could have fulfilled the hopes and expec- 
tations that centered in Wilson when he landed on the shores 
of France on December 13, 1918. He still held the moral 
leadership of the world, but the war was over, the German 
menace ended, and national rivalries and jealousies were 




Central Europe in 1919. 



beginning to reassert themselves even among those nations 
who had so recently fought and bled side by side. This 
change was to be revealed when the Conference met. There 
was no sign of it in the plaudits of the multitudes who wel- 
comed the president in France, in England, and in Italy. 



America in Action 607 

He returned on January 7, 1919, from Italy to Paris, where 

delegates to the Conference from all the countries which had 

been at war with Germany were gathering. 

The first session of the Peace Conference was held January 

18. The main work of the Conference was carried on by a 

Supreme Council, constituted at this meeting and 

composed of the ranking delegates of the five great of the 

powers. Great Britain, France, the United States, P««<=® Con- 

fGr6nc6 
Italy, and Japan. The decisions which this 

Council arrived at, with the aid of the large groups of tech- 
nical advisers which accompanied the delegations of the 
great powers, were reported to the full conference from time 
to time and ratified. 

At the plenary session of January 25, President Wilson 
made a speech in which he pointed out the need of a League 
of Nations, .and a resolution to create such a League and 
make it an integral part of the general treaty was unani- 
mously adopted. A commission to draft a constitution 
for the League was appointed with President Wilson as 
chairman. On February 14 the first draft of the Covenant 
of the League was presented by him to the Conference, 
and on the following day he sailed for the United States in 
order to consider the bills passed by Congress before the 
expiration of the session on March 4. 

The first draft of the Covenant was hastily prepared and 
it went back to the commission for revision. While in 
Washington the president invited the members jhe 
of the Foreign Relations Committee to dine with Covenant 
him at the White House in order that he might League of 
explain the Covenant to them. There was a Nations 
demand for a clearer statement of certain provisions, and 
a number of changes were suggested. Later, ex-President 
Taft, Elihu Root, and Charles E. Hughes proposed amend- 
ments which were forwarded to Paris and carefully con- 
sidered by the commission. Some of their suggestions, such 



608 ^The New Nation 

as the reservation of the Monroe Doctrine and the right of 
withdrawal from the League, were embodied in the final draft. 
Just before the president left New York, April 5, to resume 
his duties at the Conference, Senators Lodge and Knox 
issued a "round robin," signed by 37 Repubhcan Senators 
of the new Congress, declaring that they would not vote 
for the Covenant of the League in the form proposed. As 
the signers represented more than a third of the Senate, it 
was evident that they could defeat ratification. 

When the president returned to Paris, he found that 
Secretary Lansing and Colonel House had consented to the 
The separation of the League from the treaty of peace. 

Conference jje immediately reversed this decision, but the 
verge of final adoption of the Covenant was delayed by the 
disruption demand of Japan that a clause be inserted en- 
dorsing "the principle of equality of nations and just treat- 
ment of their nationals," which would have brought within 
the jurisdiction of the League the status of Japanese sub- 
jects in California and 'in the British dominions. France 
urged the inclusion of a provision creating a permanent 
General Staff to direct the military operations of the League, 
and Belgium insisted that Brussels rather than Geneva 
should be made the seat of the League. 

Other national aspirations were also brought forward. 
France wanted the entire left bank of the Rhine; Italy 
put forth a claim to Fiume; and Japan, relying on secret 
agreements with England and France, insisted on her claims 
to Shantung. For two or three weeks in April it looked as 
if the Conference would break up. The Italian delegation 
finally withdrew and returned home. Japan carried her 
point in regard to Shantung, but gave up her demand for 
recognition of racial equality. At one stage of the nego- 
tiations President Wilson ordered the George Washington 
and was preparing to leave. He was unable to make the 
Allies apply in full the principles of the Fourteen Points which 



America in Action 609 

they had agreed to in the Armistice, but he saved the League 
of Nations. On April 28 the revised Covenant was submitted 
to a plenary session and unanimously adopted. 

The terms of peace to be offered to Germany were soon 
completed, and on May 7 the treaty was presented to the 
German delegates who had been summoned to ^^^^.^^^^ 
Versailles to receive it. When the treaty was of the 
received in Berhn, there was an outcry against J^^J^Ues 
its alleged injustice, and the Germans made 
repeated efforts to draw the Allies into a general discussion 
of principles. They were finally made to understand that 
they must accept or reject it as it stood, and on June 28 it was 
signed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, — the same hall 
in which William I had been crowned Emperor of Germany 
forty-eight years before. 

The day following the signing of the treaty. President 
Wilson sailed for home, and on July 10 formally laid the 
treaty before the Senate. The Committee on The treaty 
Foreign Relations to which it was referred pro- ^«^^o^^«^*® 
ceeded with great deliberation to hold hearings and 
call before it Secretary Lansing and others who had par- 
ticipated in the proceedings at Paris. On August 19, at the 
request of Senator Lodge, the president granted the com- 
mittee an interview at the White House. Although the presi- 
dent answered directly and clearly the many questions asked 
him, he did not succeed in reconciling his opponents. The 
committee consumed two months before reporting the treaty 
back to the Senate with a large list of amendments. The 
formal reading of the treaty in the Senate took another month. 

The "opposition to the treaty, although started in the 
Senate by Lodge, Borah, Johnson, Sherman, Reed, and 
Poindexter, was not confined to that body, ^he 
Throughout the country there were persons who JJ^^^^^^^'^*'^ 
favored the League of Nations but objected to 
the terms imposed on Germany, and charged the president 



610 The New Nation 

with having proved false to the principles of the Fourteen 
Points. There were others who did not object to a severe 
peace, but who were bound fast by the tradition of isolation 
and thought that membership in the League of Nations 
would mean the sacrifice of nationality. The main object 
of attack was Article X, which guaranteed the territorial 
integrity and political independence of the members of the 
League. It was declared that this provision would embroil 
the United States in the internal affairs of Europe, and that 
it deprived Congress of its constitutional right to declare 
war. 

The president, therefore, determined to go on an extended 
tour of the country for the purpose of explaining the treaty 
to the people and bringing pressure to bear on the Senate. 
He visited the Pacific Coast States and addressed large 
audiences, who received him with enthusiasm. He was 
"trailed" by Senator Johnson, who was sent out by the 
opposition in the Senate to present the other side. Johnson 
also attracted large crowds. On the return trip, while 
delivering an address at Wichita, Kansas, September 26, 
the president showed signs of a nervous breakdown and 
returned immediately to Washington. He was able to 
walk from the train to his automobile, but a few days later 
he was partially paralyzed. The full extent and seriousness 
of his illness was concealed from the public. 

Meanwhile the Senate was taking as long to discuss 

the treaty as the Conference took to negotiate it. On 

November 6 Senator Lodge introduced fourteen 
The 
rejection amendments recommended by the Committee 

of the on Foreign Relations, all of which were adopted by 

trcfltv 

majority vote ten days later. On November 19 

the Lodge resolution to ratify with the reservations was 
defeated, the vote being 41 for and 53 against. A vote 
was then taken on a resolution to ratify without any reserva- 
tions. This was also defeated by a vote of 38 to 53. 



America in Action 611 

Since it requires a two-thirds vote to ratify a treaty, and 
the Treaty of Peace with Germany could not command even 
a majority either with or without the Lodge reservations, 
there seemed httle prospect of ratification without com- 
promise. While the president refused to accept amendments 
which would change the character of the League, he finally 
gave his consent to interpretative reservations proposed 
by Senator Hitchcock, but the Repubhcan leaders refused 
to consider a compromise, and on March 20, 1920, the re- 
jected treaty was finally sent back to the White House. 

On January 8, 1920, a letter from the president was read 
at the Jackson Day dinner in Washington, in which he 
refused to accept the decision of the Senate as ^^^ 
final, and announced that the only way to settle presidential 
the matter was 'Ho give the next election the ^^^^^^^"^ 
form of a great and solemn referendum." The 
Republicans accepted the challenge, but many other issues 
entered into the campaign, so that it proved a referendum 
on the Wilson administration rather than on the treaty. 

The Republican Convention met in Chicago June 8. 
The leading candidates for the nomination were General 
Leonarfl Wood, Governor Lowden of Illinois, and Senator 
Johnson of California. As so often happens, there were so 
many combinations against the leading candidates that no 
one of them could win the nomination, and on the tenth 
ballot Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio was nominated. 
Governor Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts was named for 
vice-president. 

The Democratic Convention met in San Francisco June 28. 
It had been generally supposed that William G. McAdoo, 
the president's son-in-law, would be the nominee, but he 
did not push his candidacy, and Governor James M. Cox of 
Ohio was finally chosen, with Franklin D. Roosevelt of New 
York as candidate for vice-president. In the campaign 
that followed Harding attacked the Wilson administration 



612 The New Nation 

for its arbitrary and unconstitutional methods and advo- 
cated a return to "normalcy." He opposed the Wilson 
League, but said he favored an association of nations and 
an international court. Cox spent the earlier weeks of the 
campaign trying to prove that the Republicans were raising 
a huge fund with which to buy the presidency, but as the 
campaign progressed he gave more attention to the treaty. 
The election resulted in an overwhelming victory for Hard- 
ing. He received 404 electoral votes to Cox's 127. 

The president had been too ill to take any part in the 
campaign. His administration had been the chief issue, 
and the people had for the time being repudiated 
ofWUson's it. He accepted the result philosophically, con- 
administra- ^qj^^ iq leave the part he had played in the great 
world crisis to the verdict of history. After the 
rejection of the treaty he had withdrawn largely from 
European affairs, and after the election he let it be known 
that he would do nothing which might embarrass the new 
administration in its handling of foreign affairs. The 
opposition to him in the election had been so overwhelming 
that a reaction was not surprising, and before he turned 
the office over to his successor there were evidences of a 
greater appreciation of his services both at home and 
abroad. In December, 1920, he was awarded the Nobel 
Peace Prize. 

Two amendments to the Constitution of the United States 
were adopted during Wilson's second administration, the 
^jjg ratification by the States being urged in both 

Eighteenth cases by the president and being hastened by war 
Nineteenth conditions. The Eighteenth Amendment, pro- 
Amend- hibiting the manufacture, sale, or transportation 
ments ^^ intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes 

within the jurisdiction of the United States, was proposed 
by Congress December 18, 1917, and, after ratification 
by three fourths of the States, was proclaimed January 29, 



America In Action 613 

1919. It was to become operative one year from the date 
of proclamation. 

The Nineteenth Amendment, extending the suffrage to 
women, was proposed by Congress in June, 1919, and, after 
ratification by three fourths of the States, was proclaimed 
as part of the Constitution, August 26, 1920, in time for 
women to vote in the presidential and Congressional elec- 
tions in November. ' 

Harding was inaugurated president on the 4th of March 
with very simplfe ceremonies. After taking the oath of 
office, he attended an executive session of the 
Senate and personally announced his cabinet uration of 
appointments, which were immediately con- President 
firmed. They were as follows: Secretary of 
State, Charles E. Hughes, of New York; Secretary of the 
Treasury, Andrew W. Mellon, of Pennsylvania; Secretary of 
War, John W. Weeks, of Massachusetts ; Attorney-General, 
Harry M. Daugherty, of Ohio ; Postmaster General, Will H. 
Hays, of Indiana; Secretary of the Navy, Edwin Denby, 
of Michigan ; Secretary of the Interior, Albert B. Fall, of 
New Mexico; Secretary of Agriculture, Henry Wallace, 
of Iowa; Department of Commerce, Herbert Hoover, of 
California; Department of Labor, James J. Davis, of 
Illinois and Pennsylvania. 

GENERAL REFERENCES 

C. J. H. Hayes, A Brief History of the Great War; J. S. Bassett, 
Our War with. Germany; J. B. McMaster, The United States in the 
World War; E. B. Garey, O. O. Ellis, and R. V. D. Magoffin, The 
American Guide Book to France and its Battlefields; General John J. 
Pershing, Final Report; Secretary of War, Annual Reports, 1917, 
1918 ; Col. Leonard P. Ayres, The War with Germany, a Statistical 
Summary; The American Year Book, 1917, 1918, 1919; S. P. Duggan 
(editor). The League of Nations; R. S. Baker, What Wilson Did at 
Paris; George Creel, The War, the World, and Wilson; C. H. Ras- 
kins and R. H. Lord, Some Problems of the Peace Conference; C. T. 



614 The New Nation 

Thompson, The Peace Conference Day hy Day; Andre Tardieu, The 
Truth about the Peace Treaty; J. F. Bass, The Peace Tangle; E. J. 
Dillon,, The Inside Story of the Peace Conference; J. M. Keynes, The 
Economic Consequences of the Peace; Robert Lansing, The Peace 
Negotiations; E. M. House and Charles Seymour (editors), What 
Really Happened in Paris; H. W. V. Temperley (editor). The His- 
tory of the Peace Conference of Paris. 



APPENDIX A. 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

In Congress, Jitlt 4, 1T76. 
A DECLARATION BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED 
STATES OF AMERICA, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED. 

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one 
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with 
another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and 
equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle 
them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they 
should (ieclare the causes which impel them to the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident: — That all men are created 
equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable 
rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 
That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, de- 
riving their just powers from the consent of the governed ; that, whenever 
any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right 
of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, 
laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such 
form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happi- 
ness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established 
should not be changed for light and transient causes ; and accordingly all 
experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while 
evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to 
which they are accustometl. But when a long train of abuses and usur- 
pations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce 
them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw 
off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. 
Sucn has been the patient sufferance of these colonies ; and such is now 
the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of gov- 
ernment. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of 
repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establish- 
ment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be 
submitted to a candid world. 

ol5 



616 Appendix A 

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary foj 
the public good. 

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing 
importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be 
obtained ; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to 
them. 

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large dis- 
tricts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of repre- 
sentation in the legislature — a right inestimable to them, and formidable 
to tyrants only. 

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomforta- 
ble, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole 
purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. 

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with 
manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. 

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others 
to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, 
have returned to the people at large for their exercise ; the State remain- 
ing, in the mean time, exposed to all the dangers of invasions from with- 
out, and convulsions within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States ; for that 
purpose obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners ; refusing 
to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the condi- 
tions of new appropriations of lands. 

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent 
to laws for establishing judiciary powers. 

He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their 
offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of 
officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. 

He has kept among us in times of peace, standing armies, without the 
consent of our Legislatures. 

He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, 
the civil power. 

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to 
our constitutions, and unacknowledged by our laws ; giving his assent to 
their acts of pretended legislation : 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us ; 

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any mur- 
ders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States j 

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world j 

For imposing taxes on us without our consent ; 



Declaration of Independence 617 

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury ; 

For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offenses ; 

For abolisliing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, 
establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its bounda- 
ries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for intro- 
ducing the same absolute rule into these colonies ; 

For taking av?ay our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and 
altering, fundamentally, the forms of our governments ; 

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested 
with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his pro- 
tection, and waging war against us. 

. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and 
destroyed the lives of our people. 

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to 
complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with 
circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most bar- 
barous ages, and totally unwmthy the head of a civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, 
to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their 
friends and brethren, or to fall tliemselves by their hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrection among us, and has endeavored to 
bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, 
whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, 
sexes, and conditions. 

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in 
the most humble terms ; our repeated petitions have been answered only 
by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every 
act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. 

Nor have we been wanting in our attentions to our British brethren. 
We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature 
to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them 
of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have 
appealed to their native justice and magnanimity ; and we have conjured 
them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, 
which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. 
They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. 
We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessiiy whicli denounces our sepa- 
ration, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, 
in peace friends. 

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, 
in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the 



618 



Appendix A 



world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the 
authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and de- 
clare, That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and 
independent states ; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the Brit- 
ish crown, and that all political connection between them and the state 
of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ; and that, as free 
and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, 
contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things 
which independent states may of right do. And, for the support of this 
declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, 
we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred 
honor. 

The foregoing Declaration was, by order of Congress, engrossed, and 
signed by the following members : — 

JOHN HANCOCK. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

Josiah Bartlett, 
"William Whipple, 
Matthew Thornton. 

MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 

Samuel Adams, 
John Adams, 
Robert Treat Paine, 
Elbridge Gerry. 

RHODE ISLAND. 

Stephen Hopkins, 
William Ellery. 

CONNECTICUT. 

Roger Sherman, 
Samuel Huntington, 
William Williams, 
Oliver Wolcott. 

NEW YORK. 

William Ployd, 
Philip Livingston, 
Francis Lewis, 
Lewis Morris. 



NEW JERSEY. 

Richard Stockton, 
John Witherspoon, 
Francis Hopkinson, 
John Hart, 
Abraham Clark. 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

Robert Morris, 
Benjamin Rush, 
Benjamin Franklin, 
John Morton, 
George Clymer, 
James Smith, 
George Taylor, 
James Wilson, 
George Ross. 

DELAWARE. 

Caesar Rodney, 
George Read, 
Thomas M'Kean. 

MARYLAND. 

Samuel Chase, 
William Paca, 
Thomas Stone, 



Charles Carroll, of Car- 
roll ton. 

VIRGINIA. 

George Wythe, 
Richard Henry Lee, 
Thomas Jefferson, 
Benjamin Harrison, 
Thomas Nelson, Jr., 
Francis Lightfoot Lee, 
Carter Braxton. 

NORTH CAROLINA. 

William Hooper, 
Joseph Hewes, 
John Penn. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

Edward Rutledge, 
Thomas Heyward, Jr., 
Thomas Lynch, Jr., 
Arthur Middleton. 

GEORGIA. 

Button Gwinnett, 
Lyman Hall, 
George Walton. 



Declaration of Independence 619 

Eesolved, That copies of the Declaration be sent to the several assem- 
blies, conventions, and committees, or councils of safety, and to the several 
commanding officers of the continental troops ; that it be proclaimed in 
each of the United Stales, and at the head ot the army. 



APPENDIX B. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

Preamble. 

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect 
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the com- 
mon defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of 
liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Consti- 
tution for the United States of America. 

Article I. Legislative Department. 

Section I. Congress in General. 

All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of 
the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Repre- 
sentatives. 

Section 11. House of Bepresentatives. 

1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen 
every second year by the people of the several States ; and the electors in 
each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most 
numerous branch of the State Legislature. 

2. No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained to 
the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United 
States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in 
which he shall be chosen. 

3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the 
several States which may be included within this Union, according to their 
respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole 
number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of 
years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. 
The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first 
meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent 
term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The num. 
ber of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but 
each State shall have at least one representative ; and until such enumera* 

620 



The Constitution 621 

tion shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose 
three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, 
Connecticut five, New York six. New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, 
Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South 
Carolina five, and Georgia three. 

4. When vacancies happen in the representations from any State, the 
executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such 
vacancies. 

5. The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other 
officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment. 

Section HI. Senate. 

[1. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators 
from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof for six years, and each 
Senator shall have one vote.]i 

2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the 
first election, they shall be divided, as equally as may be, into three 
classes. The seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at the 
expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of the 
fourth year, and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so 
that one-third may be chosen every second year ; [and if vacancies hap- 
pen, by resignation or otherwise, during the recess of the Legislature of 
any State, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments until 
the next meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. ]i 

3. No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the age 
of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and 
who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he 
shall be chosen. 

4. The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of the 
Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 

5. The Senate shall choose their officers, and also a president pro tem- 
pore, in the absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall exercise the 
office of President of the United States. 

6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all Impeachments. 
"When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When 
the President of the United States is tried, the chief justice shall preside ; 
and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of 
the members present. 

7. Judgment in case of impeachment shall not extend farther than to 
removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of 
honor, trust, or profit tmder the United States ; but the party convicted 

1 Changed by Amendment XVII. 



622 Appendix B 

shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment 
and punishment according to law. 

Section IV. Both Houses. 

1. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators and 
representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof ; 
but the Congress may at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, 
except as to the place of choosing senators. 

2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such 
meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by- 
law appoint a different day. 

Section V. The Houses Separately. 

1. Each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifica- 
tions of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum 
to do business ; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and 
may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such 
manner and under such penalties as each house may provide. 

2. Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its 
members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, 
expel a member. 

3. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to 
time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment 
require secrecy ; and the yeas and nays of the members of either house, 
on any question, shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be 
entered on the journal. 

4. Neither house during the session of Congress shall, without the con- 
sent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place 
than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. 

Section VI. Disabilities of Members. 

1. The senators and representatives shall receive a compensation for 
their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury of 
the United States. They shall in all cases, except treason, felony, breach 
of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the 
session of their respective houses, and in going to or returning from the 
same ; and for any speech or debate in either house, they shall not be 
questioned in any other place. 

2. No senator or representative shall, during the time for which he was 
elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United 
States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall 



The Constitution 02S 

have been increased, during such time ; and no pcidon holding any oihce 
under the United States shall be a member of either house during his 
continuance in office. 

Section VII. Mode of Passing Laws. 

1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Repre- 
sentatives ; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments, as 
on other bills. 

2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and 
the Senate shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of 
the United States ; if he approve, he shall sign it ; but if not, he shall 
return it, with his objections, to that house iu which it shall have origi- 
nated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed 
to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of that house 
shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, 
to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if ap- 
proved by two-thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in all such 
cases the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and 
the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered 
on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be returned 
by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have 
been presented to him, the same shall be a law in like manner as if he had 
-aigned it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in 
which case it shall not be a law. 

3. Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the 
Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a ques- 
tion of adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United 
States ; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, 
or, being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of the 
Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules and limitai- 
tions prescribed in the case of a bill. 

Section VIII. Powers granted to Congress. 

The Congress shall have power : 

1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the 
debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the 
United States; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform 
throughout the United States ; 

2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States; 

3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several 
States, and with the Indian tribes ,; 



624 Appendix B 

4. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on 
the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States ; 

5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof and of foreign coin, and 
fix the standard of weights and measures ; 

6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and 
current coin of the United States ; 

7. To establish post-offices and post-roads ; 

8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for 
limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their re- 
spective writings and discoveries ; 

9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court ; 

10. To define and punish felonies committed on the high seas, and 
offenses against the law of nations ; 

11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make 
rules concerning captures on land and water ; 

12. To raise and support armies ; but no appropriation of money to 
that use shall be for a longer term than two years ; 

13. To provide and maintain a navy ; 

14. To make rules for the government and regulation of land and naval 
forces ; 

15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the 
Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions ; 

16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and 
for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the 
United States, reserving to the States respectively the appointment of the 
officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the dis- 
cipline prescribed by Congress; 

17. To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, over such 
district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular 
states and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of government of 
the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places pur- 
chased, by the consent of the Legislature of the State in which the same 
shall be, for tlie erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and 
other needful buildings ; and, 

18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying 
into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this 
Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any depart- 
ment or office thereof. 

Section IX. Powers denied to the United States. 
1. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States 
now existing shall think proper to admit shall not be prohibited by the 



The Constitution 025 

Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight ; but a 
tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten 
dollars for each person. 

2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended 
unless when, in case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may 
require it. 

3. No bill of attainder, or ex-post-facto law, shall be passed. 

4. No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion 
to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken. 

5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State. 

6. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or 
revenue to the ports of one State over those of another ; nor shall vessels 
bound to or from one State be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in 
another. 

7. No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of 
appropriations made by law ; and a regular statement and account of the 
receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from 
time to time. 

8. No tjtle of nobility shall be granted by the United States ; and no 
person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the 
consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title 
of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state. 

Section X. Poioers denied to the States. 

1. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confedenation ; 
grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills of credit ; 
make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts ; 
pass any bill of attainder, ex-post-facto law, or law impairing the obliga- 
tion of contracts ; or grant any title of nobility. 

2. No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any im- 
posts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely 
necessary for executing its inspection laws ; and the net produce of all 
duties and imposts laid by any State on imports or exports shall be for tlie 
use of the treasury of the United States, and all such laws shall be subject 
to the revision and control of the Congress. 

3. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of 
tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in times of peace, enter into any 
agreement or compact with another State or with a foreign power, or en- 
gage in war unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will 
not admit of delays. 



626 Appendix B 



Article II. Executive Department. 
Section I. President and Vice-President. 

1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United 
States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, 
and, together with the Vice-President, chosen for the same term, be 
elected as follows : 

2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof 
may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of senators 
and representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress ; 
but no senator or representative, or person holding an office of trust or 
profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector. 

3. [The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by bal- 
lot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of 
the same State with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the 
persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each ; which list they 
shall sign and certify, and transmit, sealed, to the seat of the government 
of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The Presi- 
dent of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of 
Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be 
counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the 
President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors 
appointed ; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and 
have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives 
shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President ; and if no 
person'have a majority, then, from the five highest on the list, the said 
House shall in like manner choose the President. But in choosing the 
President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from 
each State having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of 
a member or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of 
all the States shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the 
choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes 
of the electors shall be the Vice-President. But if there should remain 
two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by 
ballot the Vice-President.] ^ 

4. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and 
the day on which they will give their votes, which day shall be the same 
throughout the United States. 

5. No person except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United 
States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to 

1 Altered by the Xllth Amendment. 



The Constitution 627 

the office of President ; neither shall any person be eligible to that office 
who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years,' and been four- 
teen years a resident within the United States. 

6. In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, 
resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said 
office, the same shall devolve on the Vice-President ; and the Congress 
may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or ina- 
bility, both of the President and Vice-President, declaring what officer 
shall then act as President ; and such officer shall act accordingly, until 
the disability be removed or a President shall be elected. 

7. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a com- 
pensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the 
period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive 
within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any 
of them. 

8. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the fol- 
lowing oath or affirmation : 

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the 
office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, 
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." 

Section 11. Powers of the President. 

1. The President shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy 
of the United States, and of the militia of the several States when called 
into the actual service of the United States ; he may require the opinion 
in writing of the principal officer in each of the executive departments 
upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices ; and 
he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against 
the United States, except in cases of impeachment. 

2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the senators present 
concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent 
of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and con- 
suls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United 
States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for and 
which shall be established by law ; but the Congress may by law vest the 
appointment of such inferior officers as they think proper in the President 
alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. 

3. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may 
happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions, which 
shall expire at the end of their next session. 



628 Appendix B 



Section III. Duties of the President. 

He shall, from time to time, give to the Congress information of the 
state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures 
as he shall judge necessary and expedient ; he may, on extraordinary 
occasions, convene both houses, or either of them ; and in case of dis- 
agreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he 
may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper ; he shall receive 
ambassadors and other public ministers ; he shall take care that the laws 
be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United 

States. 

Section IV. Impeachment of the President. 

The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the United States 
shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of trea- 
son, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. 

Article III. Judicial Department. 

Section I. United States Courts. 

The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme 
Court, and in such inferior courts as Congress may from time to time 
ordain and establish. The judges, both of the supreme and inferior 
courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior ; and shall, at stated 
times, receive for their services a compensation, which shall not be dimin- 
ished during their continuance in office. 

Section II. Jurisdiction of the United States Courts. 

1. The judicial power shall extend to all cases in law and equity arising 
under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made 
or which shall be made, under their authority ; to all cases affecting 
ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls ; to all cases of admi- 
ralty and maritime jurisdiction ; to controversies to which the United 
States shall be a party ; to controversies between two or more States ; 
between a State and citizens of another State ; between citizens of dif- 
ferent States ; between citizens of the same State claiming lands under 
grants of different States ; and between a State, or the citizens thereof, 
and foreign states, citizens, or subjects.^ 

2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and con- 
suls, and those in which a State shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall 
have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the 
Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, 

1 Altered by Xlth Amendment. 



The Constitution 629 

with such exceptions and under such regulations as the Congress shall 
make. 

3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by 
jury ; and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall 
have been committed ; but when not committed within any State, the 
trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have 
directed. 

Section III. Treason. 

1. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war 
against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and com- 
fort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of 
two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. 

2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of trea- 
son ; but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or 
forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted. 

Article IV. Thk States and the Tederal Government. 

Section I. State Becords. 

Pull faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, 
records,' and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the Congress 
may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, 
and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. 

Section II. Privileges of Citizens, etc. 

1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and 
immunities of citizens in the several States. 

2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, 
who shall flee from justice and be found in another State, shall, on demand 
of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered 
up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. 

3. No person held to service or labor in one State under the laws 
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regu- 
lation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be 
delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may 
be due. 

Section III. New States and Territories. 

1. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union ; but 
no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any 
other State ; nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more 
States, or parts of States, without the consent of the Legislatures of the 
States concerned, as well as of the Congress. 



630 Appendix B 

2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful 
rules and regulations respecting, the territory or other property belonging 
to the United States ; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so con- 
strued as to prejudice any claims of the United States or of any particular 
State. ~ 

Section IV. Guarantee to the States. 

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a re- 
publican form of government, and shall protect each of them against 
invasion; and, on application of the Legislature, or of the executive 
(when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic violence. 

Article V. Power of Amendment. 

The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it neces- 
sary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the applica- 
tion of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, shall call a 
convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be 
valid to all intents and purposes as part of this Constitution, when ratified 
by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, or by conven- 
tions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification 
may be proposed by Congress ; provided that no amendment which may 
be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in 
any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the 
first Article ; and that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of 
its equal suffrage in the Senate, 

Article VL Public Debt, Supremacy of the Constitution, Oath 
OF Office, Religious Test. 

1. All debts contracted and engagements entered into before the adop- 
tion of this Constitution shall be as valid against the United States under 
this Constitution as under the Confederation. 

2. This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be 
made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made 
under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the 
land ; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in 
the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 

3. The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members 
of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, 
both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath 
or affirmation to support this Constitution ; but no religious test shall ever 
be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United 
States. 



The Constitution 631 

i^.RTicLE VII. Ratification of the Constitution. 

The ratifications of the Conventions of nine States shall be suflBcient for 
the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the 
same. 

Done in Convention, by the unanimous consent of the States present, the 
seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the 
United States of America the twelfth. 



AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. 

Article I. 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or 
prohibiting the free exercise thereof ; or abridging the freedom of speech, 
or of the press ; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to 
petition the government for a redress of grievances. 

Article II. 

A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, 
the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. 

Article III. 

No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house, without 
the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be pre- 
scribed by law. 

Article IV, 

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, 
and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be vio- 
lated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by 
oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, 
and the persons or things to be seized. 

Article V. 

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous 
crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in 
cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia when in active 
service in time of war or public danger ; nor shall any person be subject 
for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall 
be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a witness against himself ; nor 



632 Appendix B 

be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ; nof 
shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. 

Article VI. 

In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy 
and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the 
crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously 
ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the 
accusation ; to be confronted with the witnesses against him ; to have 
compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor ; and to have the 
assistance of counsel for his defense. 

Article VII. 

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed 
twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved ; and no fact 
tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United 
States than according to the rules of the common law. 

Article VIII. 

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor 
cruel and unusual punishment inflicted. 

Article IX. 

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be con- 
strued to deny or disparage others retained by the people. 

Article X. 

The powers not granted to the United States by the Constitution, nor 
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively or to 
the people. 

Article XL 

The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend 
to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the 
United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of 
any foreign State. 

Article XII. 

1. The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot 
for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an 
inhabitant of the same State with themselves ; they shall name in their 
ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person 



The Constitution 633 

voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons 
voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and 
of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, 
and transmit sealed to the seat of government of the United States, directed 
to the President of the Senate ; the President of the Senate shall, in the 
presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certifi- 
cates, and the votes shall then be counted ; the person having the greatest 
number of votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a 
majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; and if no person 
have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers, 
not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as President, the House 
of Representatives shall choose immediately by ballot the President. But 
in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the repre- 
sentation from each State having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose 
shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the States, and 
a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if the 
House of Representatives shall not choose a President, whenever the right 
of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next 
following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of 
death or other constitutional disability of the President. 

2. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President 
shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole 
number of electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from 
the two highest numbers on the list the Senate shall choose the Vice- 
President ; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the 
whole number of senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be 
necessary to a choice. 

3. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President 
shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States. 

Article XIII. 

1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment 
for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist 
within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 

2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation. 

Article XIV. 

1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to 
the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State 
wherein they reside. No States shall make or enforce any law which 
shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States ; 



634 Appendix B 

nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, with- 
out due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the 
equal protection of the laws. 

2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States ac- 
cording to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of per- 
sons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to 
vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice- 
President of the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive 
and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, 
is denied to any of the male members of such State, being twenty-one 
years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, 
except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of represen- 
tation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of 
such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty- 
one years of age in such State. 

3. No person shall be a senator or representative in Congress, or elector 
of President and Vice-President, or holding any oifice, civil or military, 
under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously 
taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United 
States, or as a member of any State Legislature, or as an executive or 
judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United 
States, shall have engaged iu insurrection or rebellion against the same, 
or given aid and comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by 
a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. 

4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by 
law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for 
services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. 
But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any 
debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the 
United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave ; but 
all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void. 

5. The Congress shall have power to enforce by appropriate legislation 
the provisions of this article. 

Article XV. 

1. The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be 
denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of race, 
color, or previous condition of servitude. 

2. The Congress shall have power to enforce by appropriate legislation 
the provisions of this article. 



The Constitution 635 



Article XVI.^ 

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, 
from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several 
States, and without regard to any census or enumeration. 

Article XVII.2 

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators 
from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years ; and each 
senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the 
qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the 
State legislatures. 

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in tl.e 
Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election 
to fill such vacancies : Provided, That the legislature of any State may 
empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointment until the 
people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct. 

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election 
or tertn of any senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the 
Constitution. 

Article XVIII. ' 

1. After one year from the ratification of this article the manu- 
facture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the im- 
portation thereof into, or ' the exportation thereof from the United 
States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage 
purposes is hereby prohibited. 

2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to 
enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 

3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified 
as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several 
States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the 
date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress. 



1 Passed July, 1909; proclaimed Febvnarv '25. 1013. 

2 Passed May, 1912, in lieu of paragraph one, Section 3, Article I, of the 
Constitution, and so much of paragraph two of the same Section as relates to 
the filling of vacancies; proclaimed May 31, 1913. 

8 This amendment was adopted in 1919. 



636 The Constitution 

Article XIX.i 

1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be de- 
nied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of 
sex. 

2. Congress shall have pov^er to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation. 

1 This amendment was adopted in 1920. 



INDEX 



ABC alliance, 553. 

Abercromby, General James, 85, 86. 

Abolition, 309; bibliography, 321. 

Abolition party, 290, 296, 315. 

Abraham, Plains of, 89. 

Acadia, 72. 

Adams, Charles Francis, 402, 478. 

Adams, Charles Francis, Junior, 346. 

Adams, John, portrait, 207 ; Revolu- 
tionary activities of, 105, 116, 120- 
127, 130; vice-president, 191; presi- 
dent, 207-211. 

Adams, John Quincy, portrait, 266 
supports embargo policy, 229 
peace commissioner at Ghent, 246 
secretary of state, 254 ; president, 
265-269 ; opposes annexation of 
Texas, 293 ; defends right of peti- 
tion, 311 ; makes threat of seces- 
sion, 346. 

Adams, Samuel, 112, 113, 116, 186. 

Adamson law, 562. 

Agriculture, Department of, 457. 

Agriculture, development of , in West, 
306. 

Aguinaldo, 510, 511. 

Aix-la-Chapelle, the Peace of, 79. 

Alabama, admitted, 258 ; secedes, 
345. 

Alabama, The, 402 ; bililiography, 
407. 

" Alabama Claims," 475, 476, 477 ; 
bibliography, 495. 

Alamance, battle of the, 106. 

Alamo, the, 286. 

Alaska, purchase of, 478 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 495. 

Alaskan boundary dispute, 528. 

Albany Congress, S2. 

Albemarle Sound, 55. 

Alexander, General William, 130, 
131. 



Alexander VI, Pope, issues bull of 
May 4, 1493, 8. 

Alger, Russell A., inefficiency of the 
War Department under, 505 ; 
resignation of, 508. 

Alien Act, 210; bibliography, 222. 

Allen, Ethan, 121. 

Altgeld, Governor, 470. 

Alverstone, Lord, 529. 

Amendments, to the Constitution, 
the first ten, 193 ; bibliography, 
205; twelfth, 211; thirteenth, 
425; fourteenth, 428, 429, 430; 
fifteenth, 439, 464 ; sixteenth and 
seventeenth, 544. 

America, the naming of, 9. 

American Antislavery Society, 309. 

American cabinet, 192. 

American coast, blockade of, 1813, 
238 ; l)ibliography, 250. 

American Colonization Society, 308. 

American diplomacy, beginnings of, 
146. See Neutrality, Monroe Doc- 
trine, Open-door Policy, Treaty. 

American doctrine of expatriation, 
481. 

American Federation of Labor, 454. 

American fleet, voyage of, around 
the world, 1907, 537. 

American neutrality and the mission 
of Genet, 202 ; bibliography, 206. 

American Republics, Bureau of, 
485. 

American Revolution, 92. 

American system, 207. 

American Tobacco Company, 543. 

Amherst, Colonel Geoffrey, 86, 88. 

Anderson, Major Robert, 349. 

Andre, Major John, 1()2. 

Andros, Sir Edmund, governor- 
general of New England, 51, 59, 
60. 



2 



Index 



Anglican Church, the, 68. 

Annapolis Convention, 179. 

Anthracite coal strike, 1902, 522. 

Antietam campaign, 380, bibliog- 
raphy, 394. 

Anti-Federalists, 185, 197. 

Anti-Masonic party, 278. 

Appomattox, Lee's surrender at, 420 ; 
bibliography, 423. 

Arabic, torpedoed, 558. 

Arbitration treaties, 491, 527, 528. 
544. 

Aristotle, 2. 

Arkansas, admitted to the Union, 
307; secedes, 350, 356. 

Armed Neutrality, 155. 

Armistead, General Lewis A., 388. 

Arnold, Benedict, portrait, 161 ; at 
Ticonderoga, 121 ; at Quebec, 
122; on Lake Champlain, 132; 
at Fort Stanwix, 139; at Free- 
man's Farm, 143, 144 ; treason 
of, 161, 162; in Virginia, 166; 
bibliography, 174. 

" Aroostook "War," 292. 

Arthur, Chester A., portrait, 454 ; 
president, 453. 

Articles of Confederation, 175 ; 
defects of, 178 ; proposal to amend. 
179; bibliography, 189. 

Ashby, General Turner, 373. 

Ashley, Lord, 55. 

Asiento of 1713, 77, 78. 

Atlanta, fall of, 415. 

Attorney-general, office of, created, 
192. 

Australian ballot, 467. 

Bacon, Nathaniel, rebellion of, 57 ; 

death of, 58; bibliography, 71. 
Bahamas, discovered by Columbus, 

7. 
Bainbridge, Captain William, 238. 
Baker, Newton D., secretary of war, 

560. 
Balboa, Vasco Nufiez, 10. 
Ballinger, Secretary Richard A., 541. 
Baltimore, British attack on, 245 ; 

bibliography, 250. 
Baltimore, Cecilius Calvert, second 

Lord, portrait, 29 ; adopts policy 

of religious toleration, 30. 



Baltimore, Charles Calvert, third 
Lord, tlisputc with Pcnn over 
Pennsylvania and Delaware 
V)Oundaries, 53. 

Baltimore, George Calvert, first 
Lord, 28. 

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, begin- 
ning of, 305. 

Bancroft, George, 297, 426. 

Bank, United States, first, 196, 
197 ; second, 251 ; applies for 
new charter, 279 ; Jackson's war 
on, 281-283; bibliography, 288. 

Banks, Nathaniel P., 330, 376. 

" Barnburners," 315. 

Barron, Commodore James, 227. 

Bayard, James A., 247. 

Bayard, Thomas F., first American 
amloassador to England, 487. 

Beaumarchais, Pierre A. C. de, 146. 

Beauregard, General Pierre G. T., 
portrait. 358 ; fires on Fort Sumter, 
350 ; at first Manassas, 358 ; at 
Shiloh, 355; at Drewry's Bluff, 
413. 

Beecher, Henry Ward, 455. 

Belgium, invaded by Germans, 554. 

Belknap, William W., secretary of 
war, imi^eached, 443. 

Bell, John, nominated for president, 
342. 

Belligerency, recognition of Con- 
federate, 397 ; bibliography, 407. 

Bemis Heights, battle of, 143. 

Bennington, battle of, 138. 

Benton, Thomas Hart, portrait, 275 ; 
opposes Foote's resolution, 276 ; 
defends Jackson's course in re- 
moving deposits, 283. 
Bering Sea controversy, 488. 
Berkeley, Sir William, portrait, 27 ; 
expels Puritans from Virginia, 44 ; 
deals severely with Bacon's 
followers, 58. 
Berlin Decree, 225. 
Bernstorff, Ambassador, 557 ; given 

passports, 565. 
Biddle, Nicholas, portrait, 282. 
" Big-stick " policy, 526. 
" Billion Dollar " Congress, 462. 
Biloxi Bay, French settlement on, 
75. 



Index 



Birney, James G., 290, 296. 

" Black Codes," 427. 

Blaine, James G., portrait, 485; 
attitude on reconstruction, 430 ; 
candidate for presidential nomina- 
tion, 1880, 451 ; secretary of state, 
453 ; nominated for president, 
1884, 455 ; refuses to become a 
candidate in 1892, 467; Pan- 
American policy, 484, 485. 

Blair, Francis Preston, 355. 

Blair, James, 68. 

Bland-Allison Bill, 451. 

Blockade of the Confederate States, 
397 ; economic effects of, 404 ; 
blockade running, 404. 

Bobadilla, Francisco de, 8. 

" Bonus Bill," 253. 

Boone, Daniel, portrait, 107. 

Border states, attitude of, on seces- 
sion, 347. 

Boston, British troops sent to, 105 ; 
bibliography, 111 ; " Tea Party," 
1773,' 113 ; closing of the port, 114, 
115; blockade of, 117; "Boston 
Massacre," 105. 

Botetourt, Lord, 105. 

Bowen, Herbert W., 525. 

Boxer movement in China, 515. 

Boycotts, 449. 

Boy-Ed, Captain Karl, 559. 

Braddock, General Edwin, 82, 83. 

Bradford, William, 33. 

Bradley, Justice, 446. 

Bradstreet, Colonel John, 87. 

Bragg, General Braxton, 389, 392. 

Brandy Station, fight at, 385. 

Brandywine, battle of the, 140 ; 
])ibliography, 145. 

Brazil, discovered by Cabral, 4. 

Breckinridge, John C, nominated 
for president, 341. 

British attack on Washington and 
Baltimore, 245 ; bibliography, 250. 

British blockade of American ports, 
1813, 238; bibliography, 250. 

British colonial system, defects in 
the, 92. 

British intrigues with the Indians, 
232 ; Inbliogniphy, 234. 

British orders in Council, 225 ; 
bibliography, 233. 



British West Indies, trade with, 203, 

204. 

Brooklyn Heights, battle of, 130. 

Brooks, Preston, assault on Sumner, 
331. 

Brown, John, portrait, 337 ; in 
Kansas, 332 ; raid on Harper's 
Ferry, 337 ; execution of, 338 ; 
bibliography, 339. 

Bryan, William J., portrait, 471 ; 
first nomination for presidency, 
472 ; indorsed by Populists, 472 ; 
second nomination for presidency, 
516; third nomination for presi- 
dency, 538 ; supports Woodrow 
Wilson, 548 ; as secretary of state 
goes to California to prevent anti- 
Japanese legislation, 550 ; resigns 
from cabinet, 557. 

Buchanan, James, candidate for 
Democratic nomination in 1844, 
295 ; secretary of state, 297 ; 
tries to purchase Cuba, 324 ; con- 
nection with Ostend Manifesto, 
325 ; nominated for presidency, 
332; breach with Douglas, 335; 
attitude on secession, 348 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 356. 

Buckner, General Simon B., 364, 
472. 

Buell, General Don Carlos, 362, 
389. 

Buena Vista, battle of, 301. 

Bull Run. See Manassas. 

Bulloch, Captain James D., 403. 

Bunker Hill, battle of, 119; bibliog- 
raphy, 128. 

Burgoyne, General John, sent to 
Boston, 118; advances from 
Canada to the Hudson, 137-139; 
checked at Freeman's Farm, 143 ; 
surrenders at Saratoga, 144. 

Burke, Edmund, 93, 100, 114. 

Burnside, 382, 383. 

Burr, Aaron, elected vice-president, 
211 ; kills Alexander Hamilton, 
221 ; forms conspiracy in the 
west, 222 ; liibliography, 223. 

Butler, General Benjamin F., 367, 
413. 

Butler, Pierce, 180. 

Byrd, William, of Westover, 70. 



Index 



Cabinet, American, 192. 

Cabot, John, 9. 

Cahokia, 153. 

Calhoun, John C, portrait, 280; 
reports bill establishing second 
Bank of the United States, 251 ; 
secretary of war, 254 ; vice- 
president, 265; prepares "South 
Carolina Exposition," 268 ; 
develops doctrine of State 
sovereignty, 273 ; breach with 
Jackson, 276, 277, bibliography, 
288 ; nullification controversy, 280, 
281 ; concludes treaty for annexa- 
tion of Texas, 293 ; views on 
slavery, 312; last speech, 317; 
death, 321. 

California, occupation of, 301, bibliog- 
raphy, 307 ; discovery of gold 
in, 304 ; question of slavery in, 
314; admitted to Union, 316; 
anti-Japanese agitation in, 536, 
550; presidential vote, 1916, 564. 

Calvert, Cecilius, second Lord Balti- 
more, portrait, 29 ; adopts policy 
of religious toleration, 30. 

Calvert, Charles, 59. 

Calvert, George, first Lord Baltimore, 
28. 

Calvert, Leonard, 30. 

Camden, battle of, 160 ; bibliography, 
174. 

Canada, French settlement in, 72, 
73, bibliography, 91 ; British con- 
quest of, 87-90, bibliography, 91 ; 
invited to send delegates to 
Continental Congress, 117; inva- 
sion of, 1775, 122, bibliography, 
128 ; war on the frontier of, 1813- 
14, 241-244, bibliography, 250; 
reciprocity treaty with, 1854, 
323, 1911, 543. 

Canning, George, British foreign 
secretary, 263, 264. 

Cannon, Joseph G., 542. 

Capital, location of the national, 195. 

Caribbean Sea, advance of the United 
States in, 553. 

Carleton, General Guy, 130, 132. 

Carolina, charter of, 1663, 55. 

Carolinas, Sherman's march through, 
419. 



" Carpet-baggers," 435. 

Carr, Dabney, 113. 

Carranza, General Venustiano, recog- 
nition of, 552. 

Carroll, Charles, of CarroUton, por- 
trait, 127. 

Carteret, Sir George, 46. 

Cartier, Jacques, 11. 

Carver, John, 33. 

Cass, Lewis, 295, 315. 

Catholics, 28. 

Cerro Gordo, battle of, 302. 

Cervera, Admiral, 501, 503. 

Champion's Hill, fight at, 391. 

Champlain, Samuel de, 72. 

Chancellorsville, battle of, 384; 
bibliography, 395. 

Charles I, personal government of, 35. 

Charles II, re.storation of, 46, 57. 

Charleston, founding of, 1680, 56; 
population, 1760, 62; attack on, 
June, 1776, 126; fall of, May 12, 
1780, 158. 

Chase, Salmon P., leader of anti- 
slavery forces in Senate, 328 ; 
secretary of the Treasury, 409 ; 
Chief Justice, 432, 437. 

Chase, Samuel, impeachment of, 
214. 

Chatham, Earl of. See William Pitt. 

Chattanooga, campaign of 1863, 
392 ; battle of, 394 ; bibliography, 
395. 

Cherokees, 200, 277. 

Chesapeake-Leopard encounter, 227. 

Chickamauga, battle of, 393. 

Child labor, products of, excluded 
from interstate commerce, 560. 

Chile, dispute with, 485. 

China, threatened partition of, 514; 
Boxer movement in, 515 ; bibli- 
ography, 519. 

Chinese exclusion, 482 ; bibliography, 
496. 

Chinese indemnity, return of, 515. 

Chippewa, battle of, 243. 

Chrystler's Farm, battle of, 243. 

Churches, divided by slavery dis- 
cussion, 311. 

Circumnavigation, of the globe, 10. 

Civil Rights Bill, 428. 

Civil service, 213. 



Index 



Civil Service Commission, 453. 

Civil Service Reform, l)iblioKr!iphy, 
47:5. 

Civil War, financial readjustment 
after, l)il)liography, 473. 

Civil War in England, 36. 

Claiborne, William, 28, 30. 

Clarendon, Earl of, portrait, 4G. 

Clark, Champ, 542, 547. 

Clark, George Rogers, portrait, 152 ; 
expedition of, 152 ; bibliography, 
156. 

Clark, William. See Lewis and Clark. 

Clay, Henry, portrait, 289 ; speaker 
of the House, 232 ; peace com- 
missioner at Ghent, 247 ; advocates 
Missouri Compromise, 261 ; candi- 
date for presidency, 1824, 265 ; 
secretary of state, 266 ; duel 
with John Randolph, 266 ; candi- 
date for presidency, 1832, 278 ; 
defeated by Jackson, 279 ; assumes 
leadership of Whigs, 290 ; candi- 
date' for presidency, 1844, 295; 
defeated by Polk, 296 ; proposes 
Compromise of 1850, 316 ; death, 
321. 

Clayton Anti-Trust bill, 550. 

Clayton-Bulwer treaty, negotiated, 
304; efforts to modify, 484; 
abrogated, 530. 

Cleveland, Grover, portrait, 456 ; 
nominated for presidencj% 1884, 
455 ; election of, 456, bibliography, 
474 ; events of his first adminis- 
tration, 456-459 ; defeated by 
Harrison, 1888, 460; reelected 
in 1892, 467 ; events of his second 
administration, 468-470 ; opposes 
annexation of Hawaiian Islands, 
488 ; Venezuelan message, 490 ; 
Cuban policy, 495. 

Clinton, De Witt, 253. 

Clinton, Sir Henry, sent to Boston, 
118 ; fails in attack on Charleston, 
126 ; in battle of Long Island, 
131 ; evacuates Philadelphia, 149 ; 
withdraws to Now York, 150 ; 
captures Charleston, 158 ; sends 
Andr6 to confer with Arnold, 162 ; 
plans invasion of Virginia, 165, 
196; outwitted by Washington, 168. 



Clive, Robert, wins battle of Plassey, 

90. 
Coercive acts of 1774, 114; bibliog- 

rajjhy, 12S. 

Cold Harbor, battle of, 413. 

Coligny, Admiral, leader of the 
Huguenots, 13. 

Colombia, rejects Hay-Herran Con- 
vention, 531. 

Colonial policy, of the Restoration, 
46, bibliography, 71 ; of 1763, 97. 

Colonial system, defects in, revealed 
by the French and Indian War, 94. 

Colorado, admitted to the Union, 
1876, 465. 

Columbia, District of, 192. 

Columbia University, 70. 

Columbus, Christopher, belief that 
the earth was a sphere, 2 ; early 
life, 5 ; first voyage, 6 ; later 
voyages, 8 ; death, 9 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 17. 

Commerce, colonial, 66, 67 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 71. 

Commerce, interior, based on cotton 
and slavery, 260. 

Commission form of city government, 
545. 

Committees of correspondence, local, 
112; intercolonial, 113; bibliog- 
raphy, 128. 

Compromises, the three fifths, 183 ; 
between the big states and the 
little states, 182, bibliography, 189 ; 
on slavery, 184, bibliography, 190 ; 
Missouri, 261, bibliography, 270; 
tariff of 18.33, 280; of 1850, 316, 
bibliography, 322. 

Confederacy, blockade of the, 397 ; 
bibliography, 407. 

Confederate cruisers, 403 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 407. 

Confederation. See Articles of Con- 
federation. 

Congregationalists, 32. 

Congress, First Continental, 115, 
bibliography, 128; Second Con- 
tinental, 120 ; flees to Baltimore, 
135 ; appoints peace com- 
missioners, 169; Congress of the 
United States, first session, 192. 

Conkling, Roscoe, 453. 



Index 



Connecticut, the beginnings of, 38, 
liibliography, 45 ; population in 
1750, 61 ; ratifies the Constitution, 
186. 

Connecticut River, the Dutch on, 
38. 

Conscription, military, 411. 

Conservation movement, 535. 

Constantinople, the fall of, 4. 

Constitution, amendments. See 
Amendments. 

Constitution, ratification of the, 185- 
188; bibliography, 190. 

Constitutional Union party, 342. 

Constitutions, the Fundamental, of 
1669, 55. 

Constructionists, loose and strict, 
origin of, 197. 

Continental Congress. See Congress. 

Continuous voyage, doctrine of, 404, 
555. 

Contraband, sale of, 554. 

Cooper, Peter, 305. 

" Copperheads," 384. 

Cornstalk, chief of the Shawnees, 
109, 110. 

Cornwallis, Lord, in battle of Long 
Island, 131 ; in New Jersey cam- 
paign, 136 ; in battle of the 
Brandywine, 142 ; in battle of 
Camden, 160 ; campaign against 
Greene in the Carolinas, 163-165 ; 
campaign in Virginia, 167 ; retires 
to Yorktown, 168 ; surrenders, 
169. 

Coronado, Francisco de, 12, 13. 

Cortes, Hernando, 11. 

Cotton, culture, 256, 257; internal 
commerce and western develop- 
ment based on, 260 ; faith in the 
supremacy of, 396. 

Cotton gin, invention of, 256. 

Cotton Kingdom, 258. 

Cowpens, battle of, 164 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 174. 

" Coxey's Army," 469. 

Crawford, William H., 253, 254, 265. 

Credit Mobilier, the, 443. 

Creeks, 200. 

Cresap, Michael, 108. 

Cresap, Colonel Thomas, 81. 

" The Crisis," 135. 



Crittenden, Senator John J., 347; 
compromise, 348. 

Cross Keys, Imttle of, 372. 

Crown Point, captured by Seth 
Warner, 121. 

Cuba, discovered by Columbus, 7 ; 
attempts of United States to ac- 
quire, 324, 325, bibliography, 338; 
policy of Grant, 492, 493; in- 
surrection of 1895, 494 ; policy of 
Cleveland, 495, bibliography, 496 ; 
blockade of, 500 ; Congress 
demands the withdrawal of Spain 
from, 500 ; American occupation 
of, 522 ; second period of American 
occupation of, 525 ; Cuban con- 
stitution, 524 ; Cuban reciprocity, 
524, 525 ; Cuban repubHc, 524. 

Cumberland Road, 252. 

Currency, colonial, 67 ; continental 
paper, 173. 

Curtis, George William, 455. 

Cushing, Caleb, 323. 

Dale, Commodore Richard, 215. 

Dale, Sir Thomas, 25. 

Dane, Nathan, 177. 

Danish West Indies, negotiations 
for the purchase of, 1867, 479, 
bibliography, 495 ; purchase of, 
1917, 553. 

Dartmouth College case, 255. 

Davis, Jefferson, portrait, 354 ; on 
compromise of 1S50, 319 ; secretary 
of war, 323 ; confers with Douglas 
on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 327 ; 
interest in transcontinental rail- 
road, 328 ; tries to reunite Douglas 
and Breckinridge wings of Demo- 
cratic party, 343 ; president of 
the Confederate States, 354 ; cap- 
ture and imprisonment, 421. 

Dawes Indian Act of 1887, 457. 

Deane, Silas, 14G. 

Dearborn, General Henry, 236. 

Debs, Eugene V., 470. 

Debt, revolutionary, 178, 194 ; of 
the States, assumption of, 195. 

Decatur, Stephen, 215, 236, 238. 

Declaration of Independence, July 
4, 1776, 127; bibliography, 128. 

Declaratory Act of 1766, 102. 



Index 



Deerfield, Indian attack on, 77. 

Delaware, ratifies the Constitution, 
185. 

Democratic party, organized by 
Jefferson, 198 ; reorganized by 
Jackson, 278 ; division in, 340, 
343 ; status after Civil War, 449. 

Democratic Republicans, 267. 

Des Moines, 545. 

d'Estaing, Count, 149, 150, 157. 

Detroit, 2:5(). 

Dewey, Admiral George, portrait, 
501 ; wins battle of Manila Bay, 
502. 

Diaz, Bartholomew, 4. 

Diaz, Porfirio, 551. 

Dickinson, John, member of Con- 
tinental Congress, 116; leader of 
conservatives, 120 ; opposes in- 
dependence, 127 ; member of 
Federal Convention, 180. 

Diederichs, Admiral, 502. 

Dingley Tariff, 473. 

Dinwiddie, Governor, 81. 

Diplomacy, American, beginnings of, 
146. See N cutrality , Monroe Doc- 
trine, Open-Door Policy, Treaty. 

Diplomatic service, changes in, 487, 

Distribution of the surplus, 1837. 
283. 

Doctrine of continuous voyage, 225. 

" Dollar diplomacy," 544. 

Dominican Republic, financial super- 
vision of, 526. 

Dorchester Heights, 122. 

Douglas, Stephen A., portrait, 326 ; 
proposes Kansas-Nebraska bill, 
327; motives, 328; breach with 
President Buchanan, 335 ; candi- 
date for presidency, 341. 

Draft Act, March, 1863, 411. 

Draft riots, in New York, July 13-16, 
1863, 411. 

Draft, selective, 568. 

Drake, Sir Francis, 18. 

Dred Scott decision, 1857, 333, 
l)ibliography, 339 ; rejmdiated by 
Republican i)latform, 342. 

Drummond, William, 58. 

Duane, WiUiam J., 282. 

Dumba, Dr., Austrian ambassador, 
559. 



Dunmore, Lord, portrait, 109; dis- 
solves the Virginia House of 
Burgesses, 115; harries the coast 
of Virginia, 125. 

Dunmore's War, 109 ; results of, 
110; bibliography, 111. 

Dutch, on the Connecticut River, 38 ; 
settlements on the Hudson, 47-49 ; 
bibliography, 71. 

Dutch West India Company, 48. 

Eagan, Commissary-General, 508. 

Early, General Jubal A., 385, 413; 
bibliography, 422. 

East Jersey, 51. 

Eaton, Mrs., wife of the secretary of 
war, 277. 

Education, colonial, 69 ; bibliography, 
71. 

Eight-hour day, 467. 

Elective officers, rbcall of, 545. 

Electoral commission of 1877, 445. 

Elizabeth, Queen, 31 ; foreign policy 
of, 18. 

Elkton, Maryland, 140. 

Ellsworth, Oliver, 180, 184. 

Emancipation, gradual, 256 ; volun- 
tary, 310; preliminary proclama- 
tion of, 381, bibliography, 395; 
final proclamation of, 401. 

" Embalmed beef," 508. 

Embargo Act, Dec. 22, 1807, 227, 
229 ; l)ibliography, 234. 

Endicott, John, 34. 

England, Civil War in, 36. See 
Great Britain. 

Ericsson, John, inventor of the 
Monitor, portrait, 369. 

Erie Canal, 253. 

Essex, case of the, 224. 

European War, 554. 

Everett, Edward, 342. 

Ewell, General Richard S., 371, 385, 
387. 

Expatriation, American doctrine of, 481. 

Exploration, of the ^Ajncrican coast, 
9, 10, Inbliography, 17; of the 
interior of the continent, 11-13, 
bibliography, 17. 

Fallen Timber, the battle of, 200. 
Farmer's Alliance, 466. 



8 



Index 



Farragut, Commodore David Glas- 
gow, portniit, 367; 240, 367, 415. 

Federal Convention, 179. 

Federal Courts, 255. 

Federal Reserve Act, 1913, 549. 

Federal Trade Commission, 1913, 
550. 

" Federalist," the, 187. 

Federalists, favor ratification of the 
Constitution, 185 ; organized as a 
political party by Hamilton, 197, 
198 ; hostile to French Revolution, 
201 ; pass Alien and Sedition acts, 
210 ; defeated in election of 1800, 
211; in New England, 218, 249; 
cease to exist as a party, 254. 

Fendall, Josias, 59. 

Fenian movement, 476. 

Fenno, John, 198. 

Ferdinand, King of Spain, 6. 

Ferguson, Major Patrick, 162, 163. 

Fifteenth Amendment, 439 ; evasion 
of, 464. 

Fifteenth century, limits of geo- 
graphical knowledge in, 1 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 17. 

" Fifty-four Forty or Fight," 295. 

Fillmore, Millard, succeeds to pres- 
idency on death of Taylor, 319 ; 
nominated by Know-Nothing 
party, 332. 

Finances of the Revolution, 173. 

Financial crisis of 1907, 535. 

Financial depression following panic 
of 1893, 469 ; bibliography, 474. 

Financial panic of 1837, 287 ; of 
1893, 468. 

Fish, Hamilton, 477, 493. 

Fisheries, early development of, in 
New England, 66. 

Five Forks, battle of, 420. 

Florida, ceded to Great Britain, 90 ; 

, ceded back to Spain, 200 ; ceded 
to U.' S. by the treaty of 1819, 
262 ; admitted to the Union, 307 ; 
secession of, 345. See West 
Florida. 

" Flying squadron," .500, 504. 

Foote's Resolution, 275. 

Forbes, General John, 86. 

Force Bill, of 1833, 281 ; of 1890, 462. 

Forrest, General Nathan B., 364. 



Fort Christina, 49. 

Fort Donelson, fall of, 363. 

Fort Duquesne, 82, 83, 86, 87. 

Fort Edward, 138. 

Fort Frontenac, 87. 

Fort Henry, fall of, 3G3. 

Fort Le Bceuf, 81. 

Fort Lee, 133. 

Fort McHenry, 245. 

Fort Maiden, 235, 241. 

Fort Stanwix, 139. 

Fort Sumter, 349; fall of, 350; 
bibliography, 356. 

Fort Ticonderoga, 86. 

Fort Washington, 133. 

Fort WilUam Henry, 85. 

Fourteenth Amendment, 428, 429, 
430. 

Fox, Charles James, 93, 114. 

France, Treaty of alliance with, Feb. 
6, 1778, 148; breach with, 209, 
bibliography, 222 ; attitude of, in 
the Civil War, 397, 400, bibliog- 
raphy, 407. 

Franklin, Benjamin, portrait, 147 ; 
founds public library, 70 ; member 
of Albany Congress, 82 ; member 
of committee on Declaration of 
Independence, 127 ; at the French 
Court, 147 ; in peace negotiations 
of 1782, 169, 170, 171; member 
of Federal Convention, 179. 

Franklin, fight at, 419. 

Franklin, State of, 178. 

Fredericksburg, battle of, 382; bib- 
liography, 395. 

Freedmen's Bureau, 427. 

Freedom, religious, 54. 

Freeman's Farm, battle of, 143. 

Free-Soil party, 316, 320. 

Frelinghuysen, Frederick T., 484. 

Fremont, John C, career in Cali- 
fornia, 301 ; nominated for pres- 
idency by Republican party, 
1856, 332; nominated by 
Republican faction, 1864, 418. 

French, explorers, 11 ; in Florida, 
13 ; in Nova Scotia, 72 ; in Canada, 
72, bibliography, 91 ; in Louisiana, 
74, 75, bibliography, 91. 

French and Indian Wars, 76-89; 
bibliography, 91, 



Index 



9 



French aid and alliance diiring the 
Revolution, 14S ; InhlioKraphy, 156. 

French army, at Newport, 101. 

French attempt to dig a canal at 
Panama, 483 ; biljliography, 496. 

French decrees, 225 ; bibliography, 
233. 

French intervention in Mexico, 405 ; 
bibliography, 407. 

French Revolution, 201. 

French " Spoliation Claims," 285. 

French squadron, at Yorktown, 169. 

French West Indies, illicit trade 
with, 94, 95. 

Frenchtown, 241. 

Freneau, Philip, 198. 

Frontenac, Count, 74, 76. 

Frontier, disappearance of the, 465. 

Fugitive slave law, 317, 325, 326; 
bibliography, 338. 

Funston, General Frederick, 511. 

Fur seal arbitration, 489 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 490. 

Gadsden Purchase, 323, 328. 

" Gag rule," 311. 

Gage, General Thomas, 118, 120. 

Gaines's Mill, battle of, 374. 

Gallatin, Albert, 213, 247. 

Galveston, adopts commission form 
of city government, 545. 

Gama, Vasco da, 4, 9. 

Garfield, James A., portrait, 451 ; 
451-452, 453. 

Garrison, Lindley M., secretary of 
war, resigns, 559. 

Garrison, William Lloyd, 309. 

Gaspee, the burning of the, 112. 

Gates, Horatio, appointed adjutant 
general, 121 ; in Saratoga cam- 
paign, 143 ; in the Carolinas, 159 ; 
superseded by General Green, 163. 

Gates, Sir Thomas, 25. 

Genet, Edmond C, mission of, 202 ; 
bibliograph.\-, 206. 

Geneva arbitration, 478 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 495. 

Geographical knowledge, limits of, in 
the fifteenth century, 1. 

George III, character and policy of, 
93 ; the new colonial policy of, 97 ; 
bibliography, 111. 



Georgia, the founding of, 63, 186 ; 
overrun by the British, 157; 
secedes, 345. 

German immigration, to Pennsyl- 
vania, 54, 02; to the West, 307. 

German invasion of Belgium, 554. 

German propagandists, .558, 559. 

German squadron in Manila Bay, 502. 

German troops in the Revolution, 
129. 

Germantown, founding of, 54 ; battle 
of, 142, bibliography, 145. 

Germany, blockades Venezuela, 525 ; 
declares war zone around the 
British Isles, 556 ; diplomatic rup- 
ture with, 565; declaration of war 
with, 568. 

Gerry, Elbridge, 180, 185, 208. 

Gettysburg, battle of, 386-388, bib- 
liography, 395. 

Ghent, treaty of, 247 ; bibliography, 
250. 

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 19 ; portrait, 
19. 

Gist, Christopher, 80, 81. 

Gladstone, William E., speech at 
Newcastle, 400. 

Goethals, General George W., 532. 

Gold Democrats, 472. 

Gold, discovery of, in California, 
304 ; in the Klondike, 528. 

Gold standard, supported by Cleve- 
land, 468 ; in Republican platform 
of 1896, 472 ; adopted by Congress, 
473 ; approved by Judge Parker, 
533. 

Gomez, Maximo, 494. 

Gondomar, Count, 26. 

Gorman, Arthur P., 469. 

Government ownership of telegraph 
and telephone lines, 467. 

Grafton, Duke of, 102. 

" Grandfather clause," 463. 

Granger cases, 458. 

Granger movement, 466. 

Grant, General U. S., in battle of 
Shiloh, 365, 366; in Vicksburg 
campaign, 391, 392; in Chatta- 
nooga campaign, 394 ; appointed 
lieutenant general, 411; at 
Appomattox, 420 ; report on condi- 
tions in the South, 427 ; acting 



10 



Index 



secretary of war, 434 ; breach 
with President Johnson, 436 ; 
nomination and election to presi- 
dency, 439 ; first administration 
of, 441 ; reelected, 442; candidate 
for third term, 451 ; relations 
with Sumner, 477, 480; Cuban 
policy, 492, 493 ; bibliography, 
442, 447, 448. 

Grasse, Count de, 168. 

Great Bridge, battle of, 125. 

Great Britain, and Monroe Doctrine, 
263-265 ; demands surrender of 
Mason and Slidell, 398 ; attitude 
of, in the Civil War, 397, 399, 
bibliography, 407 ; and Venezuelan 
boundary dispute, 489-491 ; atti- 
tude of, in Spanish War, 502 ; 
supports open-door policy, 514. 

Great Lakes, limitation of armaments 
on, 250. 

Great Meadows, fight at, 82. 

Greeley, Horace, portrait, 442 ; 
nominated for presidency, 442. 

Green Mountain Boys, 121. 

Greenback party, 450. 

Greene, General Nathanael, at siege 
of Boston, 119; evacuates Fort 
Lee, 1.33 ; at Newport, 151 ; 
supersedes Gates, 163 ; campaign 
against Cornwallis, 165, 166. 

Greenville, the treaty of, 200. 

Guadalupe Hidalgo, treaty of, 303 ; 
bibliography, 307. 

Guilford Court House, battle at, 165. 

Gulf States, secession of, 345, 
bibliography, 355. 

Habeas corpus, writ of, suspended, 

410. 
Hague Conference, of 1899, 516 ; 

of 1907, 528. 

Hagme Court, 527. 

Hale, John P., nominated for presi- 
dency by Abolitionists, 315 ; by 
Free-Soilers, 320. 

Halleck, General H. W., 362, 365, 
375. 

Hamilton, Alexander, at Yorktown, 
169 ; proposes revision of Articles 
of Confederation, 179 ; member of 
JFederal Convention, 180 ; writes 



Federalist essays, 188 ; secretary 
of the treasurj^ 193 ; financial 
program, 194-197, bibliography, 
205 ; attitude on French Revolu- 
tion, 201 ; appointed general in 
army, 209 ; killed in duel by 
Aaron Burr, 221. 

Hamilton, Colonel, the British com- 
mander at Detroit, 152, 153. 

Hampton, General Wade, 243. 

Hancock, John, president of Massa- 
chusetts provincial congress, 117; 
president of Continental Congress, 
120 ; governor of Massachusetts, 
194. 

Hancock, General Winfield Scott, 
portrait, 452 ; in battle of Gettys- 
burg, 386 ; nominated for presi- 
dency, 452. 

Hanna, Marcus A., manager of 
McKinley's campaigns, 471, 517 ; 
senator, 517; death, 532. 

Harlem Heights, 131, 132. 

Harman, Governor Judson, 547. 

Harper's Ferry, seizure of United 
States arsenal at, by John Brown, 
337 ; captured by Jackson, 380. 

Harrison, Benjamin, portrait, 461 ; 
nominated for presidency, 460 ; 
administration of, 461 ; re- 
nominated, 467 ; favors annexa- 
tion of Hawaiian Islands, 488. 

Harrison, General William Henry, 
defeats Indians at Tippecanoe, 
232; in War of 1812, 241, 242; 
candidate for presidency, 287 ; elec- 
tion to presidency and death, 290. 

Hartford Convention, 248. 

Harvard College, 69. 

Harvey, Sir John, 27. 

Havana, captured by British, 89. 

Hawaiian Islands, revolution in, 
487 ; proposed treaty of annexa- 
tion, 488 ; annexed to United 
States by joint resolution, 503 ; 
given territorial form of govern- 
ment, 513. 

Hawkins, Sir John, 18. 

Hay-Herran convention, 531. 

Hay-Pauncefote treaty, 529. 

Hayes, Rutherford B., portrait, 446; 
nominated for presidency, 444 ; 



Index 



11 



declared elected, 446; adminis- 
tration of, 484. 

Hayes-Tilden campaign, 444. 

Hayne, Robert Y., debate with 
Webster, 276. 

Hayti, discovered by Columbus, 7 ; 
financial supervision of, 527. See 
Santo Domingo. 

Heath, General, 133. 

Henry, Patrick, portrait, 96 ; in 
the " Parson's Cause," 95, 96 ; 
resolutions against the Stamp Act, 
98-100 ; member of the Virginia 
Committee of Correspondence, 
113; member of the Continental 
Congress, 116; calls Virginia to 
arms, 124; colonel of a regiment, 
125 ; governor of Virginia, 152 ; 
opposes Constitution, 187 ; joins 
Federalist party, 198. 

Hepburn Bill, 530. 

Herkimer, General Nicholas, 139. 

Hessian troops in the Revolution, 
129, 136; bibliography, 144. 

HUl, General A. P., 373. 

Hill, General D. H., 374. 

Hill, David B., elected governor of 
New York, 466 ; in the Democratic 
convention of 1904, 533. 

HUl, James J., 521. 

Hoar, George F., senator, 509. 

Holland, Cromwell's war with, 43 ; 
in the American Revolution, 155. 

Holy AUiance, 263. 

Home Rule, restored at the South, 
447. 

Homestead Bill, 408. 

Honduras, financial supervision of, 
527. 

Hood, General John B., 387, 415. 

Hooker, General Joseph, succeeds 
Burnside, 383 ; seizes top of 
Lookout Mountain, 394. 

Hooker, Rev. Thomas, 38. 

Horse-Shoe Ridge, 393. 

Houston, Sam, portrait, 286; 286, 
.345. 

Howe, Admiral Lord, 118, 130. 

Howe, General Robert, 157. 

Howe, General William, at Boston, 
118, 120, 123; in the battle of 
Long Island, 131 ; failure to 



cooperate with Burgoyne, 138, 
139 ; movement against Philadel- 
phia, 140-142 ; resigns command, 
149. 

Hudson, Henry, voyage of, 47. 

Hudson River, the strategic impor- 
tance of, 15 ; British attempt to 
seize the line of the, 137, bibliog- 
raphy, 145. 

Huerta, Victoriano, 551, 552. 

Hughes, Charles E., investigates 
insurance companies, 534 ; 

governor of New York, 538 ; 
candidate for presidency, 561. 

Huguenots, 13. 

Hull, General William, 235. 

" Hunkers," 315. 

Hurons, 72. 

Hutchinson, Mrs. Anne, 37. 

Hutchinson, Governor, 100. 

Hyphenated Americans, 559. 

Idaho, admitted to the Union, 1890, 
465. 

Illinois, county of, organized, 153 ; 
admitted to the Union, 258 ; 
excludes free negroes, 310. 

Immigration, foreign, 272, 306, 481 ; 
restriction of, 467, 482 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 496. 

Impeachment, of Pickering and 
Chase, 214 ; of President Johnson, 
436, 437; of Secretary Belknap, 
443. 

Imperialism, 517. 

Impressment of seamen, 225, 226, 
bibliography, 233. 

Improvements, internal, 252, 284. 

Income tax, graduated, in platform 
of People's party, 467 ; declared 
unconstitutional, 469 ; constitu- 
tional amendment, 544. 

Independent treasury act, 287, 297. 

Independents. See Mugwump. 

India, 4. 

Indian, the North American, name, 
7 ; number and distribution, 15 ; 
life, 16; l^ibliography, 17. 

Indian massacre of 1622, 26. 

Indian trade, 66. 

Indiana, admitted to the Union, 
258; excludes free negroes, 310. 



12 



Index 



Indians, British intrigues with, 152, 
199, 232 ; Spanish intrigues with, 
201 ; bibliography, 206, 234. See 
Frejich and Indian Wars. 

Industry, development of, in New 
England and the middle colonies, 
66. 

Initiative and referendum, 467, 545. 

Injunction, used by Federal judges, 
470. 

" Insular Cases," 513. 

" Insurgents," faction in Republican 
party, 542, 546. 

International American Conference 
of 1889-1890, 485. 

•International arbitration, 544. 

Interstate Commerce Act, 458. 

Interstate Commerce Commission, 
given power to fix rates, 534. 

Intervention, foreign, hope of Con- 
federacy in, 384, 402 ; of Louis 
Napoleon in Mexico, 405. 

Iowa, admitted to the Union, 307. 

Irish, the, immigration of, 306. 

Iroquois, the position of, in central 
New York, 14 ; hostile to the 
French, 72 ; controlled by William 
Johnson, 79. 

" Irrepressible conflict," 344. 

Irrigation, 535. 

Isabella, Queen of Spain, 6. 

Isthmian canal, negotiations for, 
304. See Panama Canal. 

Italians, lynched at New Orleans, 486. 

Italy, blockades Venezuela, 525. 

Jackson, Andrew, portrait, 274 ; in 
the Revolution, 159 ; in battle of 
New Orleans, 246 ; invades 
Florida, 262 ; candidate for presi- 
dency, 265 ; elected president, 
269 ; first administration, 274, 
275; breach with Calhoun, 276; 
reelection of, 279 ; war on the 
Bank, 282 ; vigorous management 
of foreign affairs, 285 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 288. 

Jackson, General Thomas J. 
("Stonewall"), portrait, 372; at 
First Manassas, 360 ; Valley cam- 
paign of 1862, 371-373 ; with Lee 
before Richmond, 374-375 ; at 



Second Manassas, 376, 377; cap- 
tures Harper's Ferry, 380 ; at 
Chancellorsville, 383 ; death, 384 ; 
bibliography, 379. 

James I, 32. 

James, Duke of York, 50. 

Jamestown, 22. 

Japan, Commodore Perry's visit to, 
323 ;] supports open-door policy, 
514 ; war with Russia, 536. 

Japanese in California, 537, 550. 

Jay, John, portrait, 204 ; peace 
commissioner, 169 ; part in the 
negotiations of 1782 at Paris, 171 ; 
contributes to the Federalist, 188 ; 
sent on special mission to England, 
204. 

Jay treaty, 204, 208; bibliography, 
206. 

Jefferson, Thomas, portrait, 212; 
member of committee on inter- 
colonial correspondence, 113; 
drafts Declaration of Independ- 
ence, 127 ; declines mission to 
France, 147 ; narrowly escapes 
capture by Tarleton, 167 ; drafts 
ordinance for Northwest Terri- 
tory, 177 ; secretary of state, 193 ; 
helps to determine location of 
national capital, 195 ; expounds 
strict construction views, 197 ; 
organizes Democratic or Re- 
publican party, 198 ; favorable to 
French Republic, 201 ; vice-presi- 
dent, 208 ; drafts Kentucky Res- 
olutions, 210 ; chosen president, 
211 ; events of first administra- 
tion, 212-220 ; reelected president, 
220 ; events of second adminis- 
tration, 224-229 ; favors English 
alliance, 264 ; bibliography, 222, 
233. 

Jesuit missionaries, 73. 

Johnson, Andrew, portrait, 437 ; 
vice-president, 418 ; policy as 
president, 424, 425 ; events of his 
administration, 426-435 ; im- 
peachnient proceedings, 436-438 ; 
character, 438 ; bibliography, 447. 

Johnson, Governor Hiram, candidate 
for vice-president, 548. 

Johnson, William, 79. 



Index 



13 



Johnson, William Samuel, 180. 

Johnson-Clarendon convention, 476. 

Johnston, Albert Sidney, portrait, 
3G5, 362, 366. 

Johnston, General Joseph E., por- 
trait, 370 ; in the Bull Run cam- 
paign, 358 ; opposes McClellan 
in the Peninsula campaign, 370 ; 
commander of Confederate forces 
in the West, 391 ; replaced by 
Hood, 415 ; restored to command, 
419 ; surrenders his army to 
Sherman, 421. 

Joliet, Louis, 73. 

Jones, John Paul, 154 ; bibliography, 
156. 

Judiciary Act of 1789, 193; repeal 
of, 214. 

Kalb, Baron de, volunteers services 
in American Revolution, 147 ; 
sent to the Southern department, 
159; killed at Camden, 160. 

Kansas, the struggle for, 330-334 ; 
admitted to the Union, 1861, 
336 ; bibliography, 339. 

Kansas-Nebraska BUI, 1854, 327; 
bibliography, 338. 

Kaskaskia, 153. 

Kearney, Colonel Stephen, 301. 

Kenesaw Mountain, battle of, 415. 

Kenner, Duncan F., 406. 

Kent Island, 30. 

Kentucky, admitted to the Union, 
205 ; contest for control of, in the 
Civil War, 352. See Virginia 
and Kentucky Resolutions. 

Kernstown, battle of, 371. 

Ketteler, Baron von, 515. 

Key, Francis Scott, 245. 

Kidd, Captain William, 67. 

King George's War, 78. 

King Philip's War, 59. 

King, Rufus, ISO, 253. 

King William's War, 76. 

King's College, 70. 

King's Mountain, battle of, 162; 
bibliography, 174. 

" Kitchen Cabinet," 274. 

Klondike, discovery of gold in, 528. 

Knights of Labor, 454. 

" Know-Nothing " party, 329, 332, 



Knox, General Henry, 193. 

Knox, Philander C, .'544. 

Knoxville, occupied by Federal 

troops, 394. 
Knyphausen, General, 141, 142. 
Kosciuszko, General Tadeusz, 147. 
Ku-Klux Klan, 440. 

Labor disturbances, 409; bibliog- 
raphy, 474. See Strikes. 

Labor Unions, 449. 

Lafayette, Marquis de, portrait, 
168 ; volunteers services in Amer- 
ican Revolution, 146, 147 ; returns 
to France to seek aid for American 
cause, 161 ; conducts campaign 
against Cornwallis in Virginia, 
166-169. 

La Follette, Senator Robert M., 546, 
566. 

Lake Erie, Perry's victory on, 241. 

Land laws, 457. 

Lansing, Robert, secretary of state, 557. 

La Salle, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de, 
portrait, 74 ; explores the Mis- 
sissippi, 74, 75. 

Latin-American relations, 484. 

Laudonniere, Rene de, 13. 

Laurens, Henry, 155, 169. 

Lawrence, Captain James, 238, 239. 

Lawton, General H. W., 505, 511. 

League for Peace, 565. 

Lecompton, constitution, 335. 

Lee, Arthur, 147. 

Lee, General Charles, appointed 
major general, 121 ; disloyal to 
Washington, 133 ; captured by a 
party of British dragoons, 134 ; 
traitor to the American cause, 140 ; 
treasonable conduct at Monmouth, 
150. 

Lee, General Fitzhugh, 498, 499. 

Lee, Major Henry (" Light-Horse 
Harry"), portrait, 163; storms 
fort at Paulus Hook, 151 ; sent 
to the Carolinas, 164 ; supports 
the Constitution in the Virginia 
convention, 187 ; commands forces 
raised for suppression of the 
Wliisky Rebellion, 196. 

Lee, Richard Henry, member of 
committee on intercolonial 



14 



Index 



correspondence, 113; member of 
Continental Congress, 116; moves 
resolution of independence, 126 ; 
opposed to Constitution, 187. 

Lee, General Robert E., portrait, 
412; recumbent statue, 420; 
offered the command of the Union 
armies, 355 ; assumes command 
of the Confederate army, 373 ; 
decides to invade Maryland, 380 ; 
decides to invade Pennsylvania, 
384 ; surrenders at Appomattox, 
420 ; bibliography, 423. 

Leisler, Jacob, 61. 

Leon, Ponce de, 10. 

Lesseps, Ferdinand de, 484. 

Lewis, General Andrew, 109, 110. 

Lewis and Clark, expedition of, 
220; bibliography, 223. 

Lewis, Major W. B., 274. 

Lexington, the battle of, 118 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 128. 

Liberal Republican movement, 441. 

Liberator, the, 309. 

Liberia, 308. 

Liberty, Sons of, 101. 

Libraries, colonial, 70. 

Lincoln, Abraham, portrait, 343 ; 
candidate for Senate, 336 ; nomi- 
nated for presidency, 342 ; elected 
president, 344 ; conciliatory atti- 
tude, 347 ; calls for militia to put 
down secession movement, 350 ; 
calls for volunteers, 352 ; issues 
proclamation of emancipation, 381, 
401 ; assumes temporary military 
dictatorship, 409 ; elected for 
second term, 418 ; assassination 
of, 421 ; plan of reconstruction, 
424 ; bibliography, 447. 

Lincoln, General Benjamin, 157, 
158, 169. 

Lincoln-Douglas Debates, 1858, 336 ; 
bibliography, 339. 

Livingston, Robert R., 127, 216. 

Loans, foreign, during the Revolu- 
tion, 173. 

Locke, John, 55. 

Lodge, Henry Cabot, views on 
secession, 346 ; supports Force 
Bill in Senate, 462. 

Logan, Iroquoian chief, 109, 110. 



Lome, Dupuy de, Spanish minister 
to the United States, 498. 

London Company, the, 21. 

Long Island, battle of, 130. 

" Long Knives," 108. 

Longstreet, General James, portrait, 
376; at Gaines's Mill, 374; at 
Gettysburg, 386 ; at Chickamauga, 
393. 

Lookout Mountain, seized by Hooker, 
394. 

Lopez, General, filibustering expedi- 
tions of, 324. 

Louis XVI, execution of, 201. 

Louisburg, capture and restoration of, 
79 ; final capture of, 86. 

Louisiana, explored and named by 
La Salle, 74 ; settlement of, 75 
bibliography, 91 ; ceded to Spain 
90; ceded to Napoleon, 216 
ceded to the United States, 217 
boundaries of, 218 ; bibliography 
222 ; admitted to the Union, 258 
secession of, 345 ; electoral vote 
in Hayes-Tilden contest, 445. 

L'Ouverture, Toussaint, 216. 

Love joy, Elijah P., 311. 

Loyalists. See Tories. 

Lundy's Lane, battle at, 244. 

Lusitania, sinking of the, 556. 

Lyons, Lord, 398. 

MacArthur, General Arthur, 511. 

Macdonough, Captain Thomas, 244. 

Macomb, General Alexander, 244. 

Macon, Nathaniel, 221. 

Madero, Francisco, 550. 

Madison, James, portrait, 230 ; 
member of Federal Convention, 
179 ; journal of, 180 ; opposed to 
slavery compromise, 184 ; sup- 
ports the Constitution in the 
Virginia convention, 187 ; con- 
tributes to the Federalists, 188 ; 
leader in Congress, 192 ; opposes 
Hamilton's program, 194, 195 ; 
author of the Virginia Resolutions, 
210 ; elected President, 229 ; sends 
war message to Congress, 232 ; 
elected for second term, 233 ; 
favors joint action with England 
against Holy Alliance, 264. 



Index 



15 



Magellan, Fernando, voyage of, 10. 

Maine, first settlements, 41 ; secured 
by Massachusetts, 42 ; annexed by 
Massachusetts, 61 ; admitted to 
the Union, 261 ; boundary dispute, 
292. 

Maine, United States battleship, 
blown up, 498. 

Malvern HUl, 375. 

Manassas, first battle ol, 300, 
bibliography, 378 ; second battle 
of, 377, bibliography, 37'^. 

Manchuria, proposal to neutralize 
the railroads of, 544. 

Manhattan, island of, first settle- 
ment, 48. 

Manila, city of, captured by British, 
89 ; captured by American troops, 
508. 

Manila Bay, battle of, 501 ; German 
squadron in, 502. 

Marcy, William L., political leader 
in New York, 315 ; secretary of 
state,, 323, 325. 

Marquette, Father Jacques, 73. 

Marshall, John, supports the Con- 
stitution in the Virginia convention, 
187 ; mission to France, 208 ; 
secretary of state, 213 ; appointed 
chief justice, 214; great decisions, 
254, 255. 

Martin, Luther, 180. 

Maryland, founding of, 28, bibliog- 
raphy, 45 ; under the Restora- 
tion, 59 ; under a royal governor, 
61 ; troops in the Revolution, 
130, 135, 160; influence on land 
cessions, 176. 

Mason and Dixon's line, 53. 

Mason, George, member of Federal 
Convention, 179, 184, 185. 

Mason, James M., taken from aboard 
the Trent, 398 ; interview with 
Lord John Russell, 399. 

Mason, John Y., 325. 

Massachusetts, the founding of, 
34 ; deprived of her charter, 59 ; 
new charter, 60; population, 61; 
annexes Plymouth, 61 ; annexes 
Maine, 61 ; government re- 
organized, 1 14 ; ratifies the Con- 
stitution, 186. 



Massachusetts Company, the, 35. 

Massacre, Indian, 1622, 26. 

Maximilian, Prince, of Austria, 
accepts crown of Mexico, 405 ; 
overthrow and execution, 475. 

Mayflower, the, 33. 

McClellan, George B., portrait, 361 ; 
assumes command of the army of 
the Potomac, 361 ; Peninsula 
campaign, 370-375 ; Antietam 
campaign, 380; relieved of com- 
mand, 382 ; candidate for presi- 
dency, 418. 

McCormick, Cyrus Hall, inventor of 
the reaper, 306. 

McCulloch V. Maryland, 254. 

McDowell, General Irvin, at first 
Manassas, 358 ; assigned to defense 
of Washington, 371. 

McKinley, William, portrait, 497; 
nominated for presidency, 471 ; 
elected president, 472 ; adminis- 
tration of, 497 ; war message of, 
April 11, 1898, 499; decides to 
retain the Philippines, 509 ; nomi- 
nated and elected for a, second 
term, 516; death, 517. 

McKinley Tariff, 461. 

McLane, Louis, 282. 

Meade, General George Gordon, 
appointed to succeed Hooker, 385 ; 
at Gettysburg, 386, 387; offers 
resignation, 412. 

Mechanicsville, battle of, 374. 

Mecklenburg Declaration of In- 
dependence, 125. 

Menendez, Pedro, 13. 

Mercer, General Hugh, 137. 

Merchant ships, proposal to arm, 
566. 

Merrimac, fight with Monitor, 369 ; 
bibliography, 378. 

Merritt, General Wesley, captures 
city of Manila, 508. 

Mexican question, 551-553. 

Mexican War, causes of, 298, 300; 
bibliography, 307. 

Mexico, conquest of, by Cortes, 11; 
French intervention in, 405 ; bibli- 
ographic 407; revolution of 1911, 
551 ; recognition of Carranza, 
552. 



16 



Index 



Mexico, fity of, captured by General 
Scott, 303. 

Michigan, admitted to the Union, 
307. 

" Midnight appointments," 213. 

Milan Decree, 225. 

Miles, General Nelson A., 507, 508. 

Minutemen, 119. 

Missionary Ridge, battle of, 394. 

Mississippi, admitted to the Union, 
25S ; secedes, 345. 

Mississippi River, discovered by De 
Soto, 12 ; discovered by Mar- 
quette, 73 ; explored by La Salle, 
74 ; closed to Americans, 200 ; 
free navigation of, 200. 

Missouri, admitted to the Union, 
261 ; secession of, prevented, 352. 

Missouri Compromise, 261 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 270; repeal of, 327; 
declared unconstitutional, 334. 

Mitchell, John, 522. 

Mobile, founded, 75 ; occupied by 
United States, 2G2. 

Mobile Bay, Farragut wins battle 
of, 415. 

Mohawk Valley, 73. 

Molasses, used by New England 
distilleries, 66 ; Molasses Act of 
1733, 67, 94. 

Money, paper, 68. 

Monitor. See Merrimac. 

Monmouth, battle of, 150; bibliog- 
raphy, 156. 

Monroe Doctrine, origin of, 263, 
264, bibliography, 270; violation 
of, by France, 405 ; upheld by 
Cleveland in Venezuelan boundary 
dispute, 489, 490 ; and world 
politics, 516; put to test by Ger- 
many, 525. 

Monroe, James, recalled from 
France, 208 ; associated with 
Livingston in negotiating the 
Louisiana treaty, 217, 218; nomi- 
nated for presidency, 253 ; elected 
president, 254 ; reelected in 1820, 
265. 

Montana, admitted to the Union, 
465. 

Montcalm, Marquis de, 85, 89, 

Monterey, battle of, 300, 



Montgomery, General Richard, 122. 

Moore's Creek, fight at, 126. 

Morgan, General Daniel, portrait, 
164 ; joins American army before 
Boston with company of riflemen, 
122 ; in Saratoga campaign, 139, 
143, 144 ; defeats Tarleton at 
Cowpens, 164. 

Morgan, J. P., 521, 522. 

Morris, Gouverneur, 179, 183. 

Morris, Robert, 179. 

Morristown, Washington in winter 
quarters at, 137. 

Morse, Samuel F. B., 305. 

Motley, John Lathrop, 477. 

Moultrie, Colonel William, 126. 

" Muck-rakers," 535. 

" Mugwump," 455. 

Muhlenberg, Frederick A., first 
speaker of the House of Rep- 
resentatives, 192. 

Muhlenberg, General J. P. G., 169. 

Munitions of war, trade in, 554, 558. 

Murfreesboro, battle of, 390. 

Nantes, Revocation of the Edict of, 
75. 

Napoleon I, adjusts differences with 
United States, 209 ; acquires 
Louisiana from Spain, 216; under- 
takes the reconquest of Santo 
Domingo, 216 ; issues Berlin and 
Milan decrees, 225 ; pursues tor- 
tuous policy toward United States, 
230. 

Napoleon, Emperor Louis, favorable 
attitude toward the Confederacy, 
397 ; offers mediation, 401 ; inter- 
venes in Mexico, 405 ; decides 
to withdraw troops from Mexico, 
475. 

Narvaez, Panfilo, Spanish explorer, 
11. 

Nashville, battle of, 419. 

Nashville convention, 319. 

National banking system, 409. 

National Defense Act, 559. 

National Nominating Convention, 
origin of, 278 ; bibliography, 288. 

National Progressive party, 548. 

National Progressive Republican 
League, 546. 



Index 



17 



National Republicans, 207, 278. 

National Union Convention, 41S. 

National Union Republican Con- 
vention, 439. 

Nationality, the genu of, 1<S9 ; 
development of, after War of 1812, 
254 ; effect of immigration on, 
272. 

Naturalization, restricted, 481. 

Naval Academy, established at Annap- 
olis, 297. 

Navigation act, of 1651, 43; of 
1660, 47. 

Navy, Department of the, created, 
209. 

Negro, problem of the free, 310; 
disfranchisement of, 462. 

Neutral trade, interference with, 555.' 

Neutrality, proclamation of, April 
22, 1793, 202 ; proclamation of, 
1914, 554. 

New England, the Council for, 21, 
34 ; Confederation, the, 42 ; Sir 
Edmund Andros appointed 
governor-general of, 59 ; troops 
in the Revolution, 135; Federal- 
ists, 218, 229, 249 ; attitude during 
War of 1812, 247; bibliography, 
250. 

New France, settlement of, 72 ; 
govenmient of, 80. 

New Hampshire, grant to Mason 
and Gorges, 41 ; annexed to 
Massachusetts, 42 ; ratifies the 
Constitution, 186. 

New Haven, the colony of, 40. 

New Jersey, grant to Berkeley and 
Carteret, 50 ; becomes a royal 
province, 52 ; occupied by the 
British, 134 ; plan submitted to 
Federal Convention, 181, 182; 
ratifies the Constitution, 186. 

New Jersey, College of, 70. 

" New Nationalism," 546. 

New Netherland, settled by the 
Dutch, 48 ; conquered by the 
English, 49. 

New Orleans, founded, 75 ; battle 
of, 246, l)il)liograi)hy, 250; right of 
dejjosit at, 262 ; capture of, 367 ; 
bibliography, 378. 

New South, the, 464, 474. 



New York, population in 1750, 61 ; 
struggle over ratification of the 
Constitution, l.S7, 1S8. 

New York City, population in 1750, 
62; in the Revolution, 129-132; 
}3il)liography, 144. 

Newfoundland, explored by the 
Corte-Reals, 10. 

Newlands Bill, for irrigation, 535. 

Newport, Captain Christopher, 22. 

Newport, occupied by the British, 
134 ; attempt of American forces 
to recover, 151 ; bibliography, 
156. 

Newspapers, the first colonial, 70. 

Niagara, fighting around, 243. 

Nicaragua, financial supervision of, 
527. 

Nicholson, Governor Francis, 60, 61. 

Nicolls, Richard, 50. 

Nonconformists, act of Virginia 
Assembly against, 27 ; origin of 
term, 32. 

Nonexportation agreement, 116. 

Nonimportation agreement, 116. 

Non-intercourse Act, 1809, 229, 231 ; 
bibliography, 234. 

Norfolk, burned l^y British, 125. 

North America, explorations of the 
coast of, 10. 

North American Indian. See Indian. 

North Carolina, attempt to settle 
Roanoke Island, 19; the begin- 
nings of, 55, bibliography, 71 ; 
the " Regulators," 106; the revo- 
lutionary movement in, 125; 
delays entering the Union, 188 ; 
secedes, 350 ; bibliography, 356. 

North Dakota, admitted to the Union, 
465. 

North, Lord, appointed prime min- 
ister, 106 ; proposes terms of con- 
ciliation, 148 ; resigns, 170. 

North Point, battle of, 245. 

Northern Securities Company, 521. 

Northwest Territory, conquest of, 
liy George Rogers Clark, . 153 ; 
state claims ceded to the United 
States, 176; ordinance for govern- 
ment of, 177 ; posts in, held by 
British, 199 ; surrendered by the 

I Jay treaty, 204. 



18 



Index 



Nova Scotia, the French in, 72 ; 

ecdctl to the Briti.sh, 77. 
Nullification controversy, 279-281 ; 

bibliography, 288. 

Oglethorpe, James, 63. 

Ohio, admitted to the Union, 258. 

Ohio Company, chartered, 80. 

Ohio River, the Forks of the, 81 ; 
bibliography, 91. 

Olney, Richard, secretary of state, 
490, 491. 

Open-door policy, 514 ; bibliography, 
519. 

Ordinance of 1787, 177. 

Ordinance of Nullification, 280 ; repeal 
of, 281. 

Oregon, Spanish claims acquired by 
the United States, 262 ; conflicting 
claims of England, Russia, and 
United States, 294 ; divisional 
line arranged with England, 297 ; 
bibliography, 307. 

Oregon, voyage of the, 504. 

Oriental trade, 3. 

Oriskany, 139. 

" Ostend Manifesto," 325. 

Oswald, Richard, 170. 

Otis, General E. S., 511. 

Otis, James, opposes writs of assist- 
ance, 95 ; opinion on Stamp Act, 
98 ; denounces Patrick Henry's 
resolutions, 100. 

Pacific, American interests in the, 

487. 
Paine, Tom, publishes " The Crisis," 

135. 
Palma, Tomas Estrada, governor 

of Cuba, 524. 
Palmer, John B., candidate for 

presidency, 472. 
Palo Alto, battle of, 300. 
Panama, congress of American 

Republics at, 267 ; revolution, 

531; Republic, 532. 
Panama Canal, French company, 

483 ; bibliography, 496 ; Hay- 

Pauncefote treaty, 529 ; choice 

of route, 530 ; Tolls Act, 550. 
Pan-Americanism, the new, 553. 
Panic of 1893, 4GS. 



Papen, Captain Franz von, 559. 

Parcels post established, 544. 

Paris, the Treaty of, 1763, 89. 

Parker, Alton B., candidate for 
presidency, 533. 

Parker, Captain John, 118. 

" Parson's Cause," 95. 

Parties, political. See Democratic, 
Republican, Whig, Abolition, Free- 
Soil, Know- Nothing, Populist, Pro- 
gressive. 

Pastorius, Francis Daniel, 54. 

Patronage, political, 213." See Spoils 
System. 

Patroon, the, system, 48, 49. 

Patterson, William, 180, 181. 

Paulus Hook, capture of, 151. 

Pauncefote, Sir Julian, 491. See 
Hay-Pa u ncefotc Treaty. 

Payne-Aldrich tariff, 541. 

Peace Conference at the Hague. 
See Hague Conference. 

Peace convention, of 1861, 348. 

Peggy Stewart, burning of the, 113. 

Pemberton, General John C, 391. 

Pendleton, George H., 439. 

Peninsula campaign, the, 370 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 379. 

Penn, William, founder of Pennsyl- 
vania, portrait, 51 ; secures grant 
of Pennsylvania, 52 ; dispute with 
Lord Baltimore over Pennsylvania 
and Delaware boundaries, 53 ; 
bibliography, 71. 

Pennsylvania, charter, 1681, 52; 
popvilation in 1750, 61 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 71 ; ratifies Constitution, 
186. 

Pennsylvania, University of, 70. 

Pensacola, seized by Jackson, 262. 

Pension bills, vetoed, 457. 

Pension system, 459. 

People's party. See Populist Party. 

Pequot War, 40. 

Perry, Commodore Matthew Cal- 
braith, visits .Taiwan, 323. 

Perry, Captain Oliver Hazard, por- 
trait, 242 ; victory on Lake Erie, 
242. 

Perryville, battle of, 389. 

" Personal liberty " laws, 326. 

" Pet banks," 283. 



Index 



19 



Pettigrew, General James J., in 

Pickett's charge, 388. 

Pettigru, James L., 345. 

Philadelphia, founded, 53 ; popula- 
tion in 1750, 62. 

Philippine Islands, Magellan's 
voyage to, 10 ; ceded to United 
States, 509 ; insurrection against 
Americans, 510 ; establishment of 
civil government in, 512; bibliog- 
raphy, 518. 

Pickens, General Andrew, 158, 164. 

Pickering, Judge John, impeachment 
of, 214. 

Pickett, General George E., por- 
trait, 387 ; charge at Gettysburg, 
388. 

Pierce, Franklin, nominated for 
presidency, 320; elected, 321; 
administration of, 323-332. 

Pike, Zebulon Montgomery, 220. 

Pilgrims, the, 33. 

Pinckney, Charles, member of 
Federal Convention, 180. 

Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth, 
member of Federal Convention, 
180 ; commissioner to France, 208 ; 
candidate for presidenr-y, 220. 

Pinckney, General Thomas, nego- 
tiates treaty with Spain, 201. 

Pious Fund of the Californias, 527. 

Piracy, colonial, 67 ; bibliography, 71. 

Pitt, William (Earl of Chatham), 
portrait, 114; directs conduct of 
the French and Indian War, 85 ; 
opposes colonial policy of George 
III, 93 ; enters House of Lords, 
103 ; opposes coercive acts of 1774, 
114; death, 149. 

Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloh, battle 
of, 365. 

Plantation system, beginnings of, 
64, bibliography, 71 ; extended 
over the Southwest, 257, 258, 
bibliography, 269. 

Plassey, l)attle of, 90. 

Piatt amendment, 523, 524. 

Piatt, Thomas C, resigns his seat, 
453. 

Plymouth, settlement of, 33 ; annexed 
to Massachusetts, 61. 

Plymouth Company, the, 21. 



Pocahontas, portrait, 22, 23. 

Point Pleasant, battle of, 110. 

Political parties, origin of, 197, 
bibliography, 206 ; reshaping of, 
266, liibliography, 270 ; disruption 
6f, on the slavery issue, 328 ; re- 
shaping of, 329. See Parties. 

Polk, James K., nominated for 
presidency, 295 ; administration, 
290-304. 

Polo, Marco, 1. 

Pontiac, the conspiracy of, 90. 

Pope, General John, 375, 370. 

Popular sovereignty, doctrine of, as 
applied in the slavery contest, 
314; bibliography, 322; applied 
to Kansas by Douglas, 327, 335 ; 
suljject of dispute in the Demo- 
cratic convention of 1860, 340. 

Population, growth of, in the colonies, 
1640-1660, 44 ; 1700-1750, 61 ; 
bibliography, 71 ; of United States 
in 1830, 273; in 1860, 352. 

Populist party, growth of, in the 
South, 462; in the West, 465- 
467; platform of 1892, 467; en- 
dorses Bryan, 472, 517; bibliog- 
raphy, 474. 

Port Gibson, Grant's victory at, 
391. 

Port Republic, battle of, 372. 

Port Royal, settled by the French, 
72 ; captured by the British, 77. 

Porter, Captain David, 239. 

Porter, Admiral David D., 307. 

Porter, General Fitz-John, at 
Gaines's Mill, 373, 374; court- 
martialed for alleged failure to 
cooperate with Pope, 378. 

Porto Rico, occupied by American 
troops, 507. 

Portsmouth, treaty of, 536. 

Portuguese, discoveries of, 4 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 17. 

Postal savings banks, advocated by 
Populists, 467 ; established by 
act of Congress in 1910, 544. 

Powers, ini])lied, doctrine of, applied 
by Hamilton, 197; expounded by 
Marsliall, 2.^4. 2.55. 

Powhatan, Indian chief, 23. 

Preble, Commodore Edward, 215. 



20 



Index 



Presidential elections, of 1789, 191 ; 
of 1792, 199; of 1796, 207; of 
18U0, 211; of 1804, 220; of 1808, 
229; of 1812, 233; of 1816, 253; 
of 1820, 265; of 1824, 265; of 
1828, 269 ; of 1832, 279 ; of 1836, 
286; of 1840, 289; of 1844, 295, 
296; of 1848, 315, bibliography, 
322; of 1852, 320, bibliography, 
322; of 1856, 332, bibliography, 
339; of 1860, 340-344, bibliog- 
raphy, 355; of 1864, 417, bibliog- 
raphy, 423; of 1868, 439; of 
1872, 442; of 1876, 444-446, 
bibliography, 448 ; of 1880, 451 ; 
of 1884, 455, 456; of 1888, 460; 
of 1892, 466; of 1896, 471-473; 
of 1900, 516; of 1904, 632; of 
1908, 538; of 1912, 547; of 1916, 
560-563. 

Primary system of nominating candi- 
dates, 545, 547. 

Prince Henry, the Navigator, 4. 

Princeton, battle of, Jan. 3, 1777, 
136 ; bibliography, 144. 

Prisoners, treatment of, during the 
Civil War, 422. 

Privateers, in the Revolution, 154 ; 
in the War of 1812, 240; bibliog- 
raphy, 250. 

Prizes, in the War of 1812, 240; 
bibliography, 250. 

Progressive party, organized, 548 ; 
in the campaign of 1916, 561-564. 

Progressive Republicans, organiza- 
tion of, 546. 

Protective policy, 267. 

Providence (Annapolis), founded, 28. 

Public land policy of the United 
States, 258, 272. 

Public land question, 275 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 288. 

Pulaski, Count Casimir, volunteers 
services in the American Revolu- 
tion, 147; killed, 158. 

Pullman Car Company strike, 470. 

Puritans, settlement of, in Virginia, 
27 ; migration to New England, 31, 
bibliography, 45 ; supremacy of, 
in England, 43, bibliography, 45. 

Putnam, General Israel, at siege of 
Boston, 119; appointed major- 



general, 121 ; at Brooklyn Heights, 
131 ; in New Jersey, 133. 

Quakers, in the colonies, 51, 52. 
Quebec, the founding of, 72. 
Quebec Act, 114, 152. 
Queen Anne's War, 77. 
Quincy, Josiah, 105, 345. 

Rahl, Colonel, commander of Hes- 
sians at Trenton, 136. 

Railroads, building of, 305 ; trans- 
continental, projected, 328 ; Union 
Pacific chartered, 408 ; completion 
of lines to the Pacific Coast, 457 ; 
regulation of, 458. 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, attempts to 
colonize America, 19 ; bibliography, 
45. 

Randolph, Edmund, introduces the 
Virginia plan in the Federal Con- 
vention, 180 ; refuses to sign the 
Constitution, 185 ; supports the 
Constitution in the Virginia conven- 
tion, 187 ; attorney-general, 193 ; 
withdraws from the cabinet, 205. 

Randolph, John, (of Roanoke), con- 
ducts impeachment of Chase, 
214 ; opens attack on Madison, 
221; fights duel with Clay, 266; 
frees slaves by will, 310. 

Randolph, Peyton, president of Con- 
tinental Congress, 116, 120. 

Randolph, Thomas Jefferson, pro- 
poses plan for gradual emancipa- 
tion of slaves in Virginia, 310. 

Rankin, Miss Jeannette, first woman 
representative elected to Congress, 
564. 

Reaper, invented by Cyrus Hall 
McCormick, 306. 

Reciprocity, with Canada, 323, 543; 
in Dingley Tariff Act, 473; with 
Cuba, 525. 

Reconcentration policy, of General 
Weyler in Cuba, 494. 

Reconstruction, Lincoln's plan, 424 ; 
congressional plan, 433 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 447. 

Reed, Major Walter, demonstrates 
transmission of yellow fever by 
the mosquito, 523. 



Index 



21 



Reform movement, under Roosevelt, 
5:u. 

Religion, in the colonies, 68, 69 ; 
bihliosrai)hy, 71. 

Religious toleration, in Maryland, 
30, 44; in Rhode Island, 38. 

Removal of deposits from the Bank 
of the United States, 282. 

Republican party, formation, of 329 ; 
nominates Colonel John C. Fre- 
mont, 332 ; nominates Lincoln, 
342. 

Republicans, Jefifersonian, 198. 

Resaca de la Palma, battle of, 300. 

Restoration, colonial policy of the, 
46; liihliography, 71. 

Revere, Paul, 118. 

Revolution, American, 92 ; theoret- 
ical basis of, 103; historical view 
of, 104; finances of, 173, 178; 
debt incurred by, 194. 

Reynolds, General John F., killed 
at Gettysburg, 386. 

Rhode Island, founding of, 37 ; 
religious toleration in, 38 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 45 ; fails to send delegates 
to the Federal convention, 180 ; 
delays entering the Union, 188. 

Ribaut, Jean, 13. 

Richmond, capital of the Con- 
federacy, 358 ; seven days' fight- 
ing around, 373-375, bibliography, 
379 ; fall of, 420. 

Rights, the theory of natural, 104. 

River and Harbor Bill, vetoed by 
Arthur, 454 ; vetoed by Cleve- 
land, 457. 

Roanoke Island, 19. 

Robertson, James, founder of 
Tennessee, 108. 

Rochambeau, Comte, arrives at 
Newport, 161 ; participates in 
the Yorktown campaign, 168, 
169. 

Rockingham, the Marquis of, 102. 

Rodgers, Commodore John, en- 
counter with the Little Belt, 231 ; 
commands American Navy in War 
of 1812, 236. 

Roosevelt, Theodore,- portrait, 521 ; 
organizes regiment of " Rough 
Riders," 505; nominated for vice- 



presidency, 516 ; succeeds to presi- 
dency on death of McKinley, 517; 
measures of first administration, 
520 ; checks German intervention 
in Venezuela, 522; "big-stick" 
policy, 526 ; recognizes the Re- 
public of Panama, 531 ; nominated 
for second term, 532 ; promotes 
conservation movement, 535 ; in- 
tervenes in Russo-Japanese War, 
536 ; upholds Japanese rights in 
California, 537 ; agrees to become 
candidate for third term, 547 ; 
accepts nomination of Progressive 
party, 548 ; declines second nomi- 
nation of Progressive party, 562. 

Roosevelt policies, failure of Taft to 
uphold, 540-542. 

Root, Elihu, portrait, 524 ; appointed 
secretary of war, 508 ; author of 
Piatt Amendment, 524 ; suggested 
for presidency, 538 ; criticizes 
Wilson's foreign policy, 561. 

Rosecrans, General William S., 
commands Union forces in Mur- 
freesboro campaign, 390 ; in 
Chattanooga campaign, 392-394. 

Ross, Major-General Robert, killed 
at North Point, 245. 

" Rough Riders," 505. 

Rule of 1756, 224. 

Rum, importation of, forbidden in 
Georgia, 64 ; used by New England 
in slave trade, 66, 94. 

" Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion," 
456. 

Rush, Richard, 264. 

Russell, Lord, British foreign secre- 
tary, 397. 

Russian revolution, 567. 

Russo-Japanese War, 536. 

Rutledge, John, member of Federal 
Convention, 180; favors con- 
tinuance of slave trade, 184. 

Ryswick, Treaty of, 76. 

St. Augustine, founded, 13. 

St. Clair, General Arthur, evacuates 
Ticondcroga, 13S; defeated by 
Indians of the Northwest, 200. 

St. Eustatius, th<> island of, 1.55. 

St. Lawrence River, exploration of, IL 



^.l 



Index 



St. Leger, Colonel, invades New 
York by way of Oswego, 138 ; 
compelled by Arnold to abandon 
siege of Fort Stanwix, 139. 

St. Marks, seized by Jackson, 262. 

St. Mary's, settled by Leonard 
Calvert, 29. 

Sackville-West, Lord, 460. 

" Salary Grab " Act, 443. 

Samoan islands, 487. 

Sampson, Rear-Admiral William T., 
portrait, 503 ; established blockade 
of Cuba, 500 ; engages in search 
for Cervera's fleet, 503 ; blockades 
Santiago, 507. 

Sampson-Schley controversy, 508. 

San Francisco Board of Education, 
exfludes Japanese from schools, 
536. 

San Jacinto, battle of, 286. 

San Juan Hill, battle of, 505. 

San Salvador, discovered by 
Columbus, 7. 

Sandys, Sir Edwin, treasurer of tho 
London Company, 26 ; gives Pil- 
grims permission to settle in 
Virginia, 32. 

Santa Anna, General, defeated by 
Houston in battle of San Jacinto, 
286 ; attacks Taylor at Buena 
Vista, 301. 

Santiago, military campaign, 504 ; 
naval battle of, 506. 

Santo Domingo, Napoleon under- 
takes the reconquest of, 216; 
Grant's efforts to annex, 480 ; 
bibliography, 495. 

Saratoga, surrender of Burgoyne at, 
144 ; the " Convention " of, 144 ; 
bibliography, 145. 

Savannah, Americans repulsed at, 
157. 

" Scalawags," 435. 

Schley, Commodore Winfield Scott, 
portrait, 506 ; in command of the 
"Flying Squadron," 500; in 
search for Cervera, 504 ; in battle 
of Santiago, 507. 

Schurz, General Carl, report on 
conditions in the South, 427 ; 
supports Cleveland for the presi- 
dency, 455. 



Schuyler, General Philip, appointed 
major-general, 121 ; opposes Bur- 
goyne's advance, 138, 139 ; re- 
placed by Gates, 143. 

Scotch-Irish, immigration to America, 
62, 63. 

Scott, General Winfield, portrait, 
302 ; defeats British at Chippewa, 
243 ; appointed to command 
Mexican expedition, 301 ; cap- 
tures city of Mexico, 303 ; candi- 
date for presidency, 320 ; com- 
mands United States army at 
beginning of Civil War, 358 ; 
resigns, 362. 

Search, belligerent right of, abused 
by British, 225, 226 ; bibliography, 
233. 

Secession, antislavery leaders 
threaten, 293 ; of South Carolina, 
344; of the Gulf States, 345; 
historical view of, 345, 346 ; of 
Virginia, North Cgirolina, Ten- 
nessee, and Arkansas, 350, 351 ; 
bibliography, 355, 356. 

Sectionalism, the basis of, 271, 272. 

Sedition Act, 210 ; bibliography, 
222. 

Semmes, Captain Raphael, com- 
mander of the Alabama, 402. 

Senate rules, revision of, 566. 

Senators, U. S., election of, by 
direct vote, 467, 544. 

Separatists, seek refuge in Holland, 
32. 

Servitude, white, 65 ; bibliography, 
71. 

Seven Pines, battle of, 373. 

Seven Years' War, 93. 

Seventeenth Amendment, 544. 

Severities, in Civil War, 421, 422. 

Sevier, John, founder of Tennessee, 
108 ; in battle of King's Mountain, 
162 ; governor of the " State of 
Franklin," 178; leads expedition 
against the Chcrokces, 201. 

Seward, William H., opposes Com- 
promise of 1850, 319; candidate 
for Republican nomination, 341 ; 
opposes expedition for relief of 
Fort Sumter, 349 ; secretary of 
state, 398 ; surrenders Mason and 



Index 



23 



Slidell, 399 ; protests against 
French invasion of Mexico, 475 ; 
negotiates purchase of Alaska, 
478 ; favors expansion in West 
Indies, 479, 480. 

Seymour, Horatio, candidate for 
presidency, 439. 

Shatter, Major-General William R., 
in command of American troops in 
• Santiago campaign, 505. 

Shaftesbury, Earl of, 46. 

Sharpsburg, battle of, 380. 

Shays, Daniel, rebellion of, 179. 

Shelburne, Lord, 170. 

Shelby, Isaac, 162. 

Sheridan, General Philip, portrait, 
414; in Chattanooga campaign, 
394 ; raids Valley of Virginia, 414 ; 
bibliography, 422. 

Sherman, John, appointed secretary 
of state, 497. 

Sherman, Roger, member of com- 
mittee to draft Declaration of 
Independence, 127 ; member of 
Federal Convention, 180. 

Sherman, General William T., por- 
trait, 416 ; in Vicksburg campaign, 
390 ; in Chattanooga campaign, 
394 ; captures Atlanta, 415 ; march 
to the sea, 416 ; ruthless policy, 
417 ; march through the Carolinas 
of, 419 ; forces surrender of Johns- 
ton's army, 421 ; bibliography, 
423. 

Sherman Anti-trust Act, 462, 521. 

Sherman Silver Purchase Act, 468. 

Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing, battle 
of, 365. 

Shirley, Governor of Massachusetts, 
plans capture of Louisburg, 78. 

Sickles, General Daniel E., at 
Gettysburg, 387 ; removed from 
command of the district of North 
and South Carolina, 434. 

Silver, demonetization of, 451 ; free 
coinage of, demanded in the West, 
466 ; in populist platform of 1892, 
467 ; the main issue in the presi- 
dential election of 1896, 471, 
472 ; reaffirmed by the Demo- 
cratic platform of 1900, 516 ; 
bibliography, 474. 



Silver Purchase Act, 462. 

Silver Republicans, 517. 

Simms, William Gilmore, views on 
slavery, 311. 

Sixteenth Amendment, 544. 

Slave trade, dmncstic, prohibited 
in District of Columbia, 317. 

Slave trade, foreign, beginnings of, 
18; England acquires monopoly 
of, 65, 77; first Continental 
Congress decides to discontinue, 
116; permitted for twenty years 
by the Constitution, 184 ; pro- 
hibited by State statutes, 256 ; 
United States agrees in Webster- 
Ashburton treaty to suppress, 292. 

Slavery, established in the colonies, 
65, bibliography, 71 ; excluded 
from the Northwest Territory, 
177, 178 ; subject of compromise 
in Federal Convention, 183, 184, 
bibliography, 190; extendcil by 
invention of cotton gin, 255, 256 ; 
basis of western development, 260; 
in Mis.souri Compromise, 261, 
bibliography, 269; early opposi- 
tion to, 308 ; debate in the Virginia 
legislature, 309 ; divides churches, 
311; Southern defense of, 311; 
Calhoun's position on, 312; 
economic argument in support of, 
312; ciuestion of, in California, 
314; bibliography, 321; emanci- 
pation proclaimed by Lincoln, 
381, 401; in foreign negotiations 
of the Confederacy, 406. 

Slidell, John, mission of, to Mexico, 
299 ; taken from aboard the 
Trent, 398. 

Smallwood, General, commands 
Maryland brigade at battle of 
Long Island, 131. 

Smith, Captain John, portrait, 23 ; 
share in founding Virginia, 23 ; 
character and writings, 24. 

Smith, General Kirby, at Bull Run, 
360; invades Kentucky, 389. 

Smuggling, with Spanish colonies, 78. 

Soto, Hernando de, discovers the 
Mississippi River, 12. 

Soule, Pierre, minister to Spain, 
325. 



24 



Index 



South, the economic dependence of 
the West on the, 259 ; political 
alliance with West, 260 ; solidarity 
of, 353 ; under negro rule, 440, 
bibliography, 448 ; restoration of 
Home Rule, 447. 

Southampton, the Earl of, 20. 

Southampton insurrection, 309. 

South Carolina, the beginnings of, 
56, bibliography, 71 ; overrun by 
the British, 158 ; insists on slave 
trade, 184 ; ratifies the Consti- 
tution, 186; secedes, 344, bibliog- 
raphy, 355. 

" South Carolina Exposition," 268. 

South Dakota, admitted to the Union, 
465. 

Southern Democrats, 343. 

Southern States, reconstruction of, 
424, 433 ; constitutional status of, 
430. 

Spain, at war with England during 
the American Revolution, 155, 
bibliography, 156 ; closes the 
Mississippi to Americans, 200 ; 
intrigues with the Indians, 201 ; 
cedes Louisiana to Napoleon, 216 ; 
withdrawal from Cuba demanded 
by Congress, 500 ; war with, 
501-507; peace terms, 508, 509. 

Spanish-American revolution, 263. 

" Specie Circular," 284. 

Specie payments, resumption of, 450. 

Spoils system, 275, 287. 

" Spoliation Claims," 285. 

Spooner amendment, 530. 

Spotswood, Alexander, Governor of 
Virginia, 67. 

Spottsylvania Court House, battle 
of, 412. 

" Squatter sovereignty." See Popu- 
lar sovereignty. 

Stamp Act, pas.sage of, 98 ; protests 
against, 101; repeal of, 102; 
bibliography. 111. 

Standard Oil Company, organization 
of, 520 ; dissolution ordered, 543. 

Stanton, Edwin M., secretary of 
war, suspension of, 434 ; removal 
of, 436. 

" Star routes " frauds, 453. 

Star-Spangled Banner, 246. 



Stark, General John, at siege of 
Boston, 119 ; at battle of Benning- 
ton, 138. 

State, Department of, organized, 192. 

State governments, organization of, 
123, 124; bibliography, 128. 

State sovereignty, doctrine of, 273, 
346. 

Stephen, General Adam, at German- 
town, 142 ; court-martial a"nd 
dismissal of, 143. 

Stephens, Alexander H., portrait, 
347 ; opposes secession, 345. 

Steuben, Baron von, volunteers 
services during Revolution, 147 ; 
reorganizes American army at 
Valley Forge, 149. 

Stevens, Thaddeus, portrait, 432 ; 
views on status of Southern 
States, 431 ; author of radical 
reconstruction, 433. 

Stirling, Lord. See General William 
Alexander. 

Stockton, Commodore, 301. 

Stoeckl, Baron, 478. 

Stony Point, captured by Anthony 
Wayne, 151. 

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, author of 
" Uncle Tom's Cabin," 321. 

Strikes, 449, 4.54, 470, 562. 

Stuart, General J. E. B., cuts 
McClellan's communications, 373 ; 
in Gettysburg campaign, 385. 

Stuyvesant, Peter, 49, 50. 

Submarine warfare, 555, 565. 

Suffrage, negro, 430. 

Sugar Act of 1764, 97, 102. 

Sullivan, General John, 131, 142, 
151. 

Sullivan's Island, 126. 

Sumner, Charles, assaulted by Pres- 
ton Brooks, 331 ; views on status 
of Southern States, 431 ; obstructs 
settlement of " Alabama Claims," 
477 ; breach with Grant, 480. 

Supreme Court, jurisdiction and 
prestige extended by Marshall, 
254, 255 ; criticized for Dred 
Scott decision, 334 ; conservative 
attitude on questions of recon- 
struction, 432, 435 ; large number 
of justices appointed by Taft, 543. 



Index 



25 



Sussex, attack on the, 559. 
Swedish West India Company, 49. 

Taft, William H., portrait, 540; 
appointed head of Philippine Com- 
mission, 512 ; nominated for presi- 
dency, 538 ; administration of, 
540 ; speech at Winona on the 
Payne- Aldrich Tariff, 541 ; foreign 
policy of, 543 ; candidate for 
reelection, 547» 

Talleyrand, 208. 

Tammany Society, 315. 

Taney, Roger B., secretary of the 
treasury, 283 ; Chief Justice, 334. 

Tariff, act of 1816, 252 ; becomes a 
sectional issue, 267 ; act of 1828, 
268; bibliography, 270; act of 
1846, 297 ; high protective duties 
imposed during Civil War, 408 ; 
reform, 459 ; act of 1890, 461 ; 
bibliography, 474. 

Tarleton, Colonel Banastre, 164, 165, 
167. 

Taylor, John, 210. 

Taylor, General Zachary, in Mexican 
War, 299-301 ; nominateu by 
Whigs, 315; elected president, 
316; death, 319. 

Tecumseh, Indian chief, 232, 242. 

Telegraph, invented by Morse, 305. 

Tennessee, the beginnings of, 107 ; 
admitted to Union, 205 ; secedes, 
350, 356. 

Tenure-of-office Act, 433, 436, 437. 

Territorial expansion, attitude of 
sections on, 272. 

Texas, claim of United States under 
the Louisiana treaty, 218, 261 ; 
surrendered by the Florida treaty, 
262 ; declares independence, 285, 
bibliography, 288 ; annexation of, 
becomes political issue, 292 ; in- 
trigues of Great Britain and France 
with, 293 ; annexed by joint 
resolution, 296 ; admitted to the 
Union, 296, bibliography, 307; 
secedes, 345. 

Thames River, fight at, 242. 

Thirteenth Amendment, 425. 

Thomas, General George H., 354, 
393, 394. 



Thomas, General Lorenzo, 436. 

Ticonderoga, failure of Abercromby's 
expedition against, 86 ; captured 
by Ethan Allen, 121 ; evacuated 
by St. Clair, 130. 

Tippecanoe, battle of, 232. 

Tobacco, cultivated in Virginia, 26 ; 
basis of early plantation system, 
64 ; used as currency, 67. 

Toleration, religious, in Maryland, 
30 ; in Rhode Island, 38. 

Toombs, Robert, .397. 

Topeka constitution, 335. 

Tories, harsh treatment of, 123, 
bibliography, 128; in New York, 
132; in Philadelphia, 134; a 
burden to Sir Henry Clinton, 149 ; 
raids of, 151 ; in the Northwest, 
153 ; in South Carolina, 158 ; 
in the peace negotiations, 171, 172. 

Toscanelli, 5. 

Townshend Acts of 1767, 103 ; repeal 
of, 106; bibliography. 111. 

Trade, oriental, 3, bibliography, 17; 
fur, 66, 73. See Slave trade, West 
Indies. 

Transportation, canals as means of, 
253, 305. See Railroads. 

Transshipment, of contraband, 555. 

Treasury, Department of the, 
organized, 192. 

Treaty, of Utrecht, 77; of Aix-la- 
Chapelle, 79; of Paris, 1763, 89; 
of 1778, with France, 201, 209; of 
1783, with Great Britain, 170- 
173; Louisiana Purchase, 217; 
of Ghent, 247, 250 ; Florida, 262 ; 
Webster-Ashburton, 291 ; Guada- 
lupe-Hidalgo, 303, 307; Clayton- 
Bulwer, 304 ; Canadian reciproc- 
ity, 323; with Japan, 323; of 
Washington, 477 ; Hay-Paunce- 
fote, 529. 

Trent affair, 398 ; bibliography, 407. 

Trent, Captain William, 81. 

Trenton, battle of, 136 ; bibliography, 
144. 

Tripoli, war with, 215 ; bibliography, 
222. 

Trist, Nicholas P., .302. 

Trusts, growth of, 462, 474, 520. 

Truxtun, Captain Thomas, 209. 



26 



Index 



Tryon, Governor, 106, 151. 

Turner, Nat, 309. 

Twopenny Act, 95. 

Tyler, John, succeeds to presidency 
on death of Harrison, 290 ; 
administration of, 291-293, bibliog- 
raphy, 307 ; presides over peace 
convention, 348. 

" Uncle Tom's Cabin," 321. 

" Underground Railroad," 309, 325. 

Underwood, Oscar W., 542, 547. 

Underwood Tariff Act, 549. 

Union Pacific Railway, chartered, 

408. 
United States Steel Corporation, 521. 
Utah, admitted to the Union, 465. 
Utrecht, Treaty of, 65, 77. 

Vaca, Cabefa de, 12. 

Valley Forge, 149 ; bilaliography, 156. 

Van Buren, Martin, secretary of 
state, 274 ; elected president, 
286 ; administration, 287, bibliog- 
raphy, 288 : nominated by Frce- 
Soilers, 315, 316. 

Vardaman, J. K., Senator, 566. 

Venango, 81. 

Venezuela, boundary dispute with 
England, 489, bibliography, 496 ; 
blockaded by England, Italy and 
Germany, 525. 

Vera Cruz, Amei-ican occupation of, 
551. 

Vergennes, Comte de, 146, 148, 171. 

Vermont, admitted to the Union, 
205. 

Verrazano, Giovanni da, 11. 

Vesputius, Americus, 9. 

Vicksburg, Grant's campaign against, 
390; siege and fall of, 392; 
bibliography, 395. 

Villa, General Francisco, 552. 

Vincennes, capture of, 153. 

Virginia, name, 19 ; settlement, 22- 
27, bibliography, 45 ; submits to 
parliamentary commissioners, 

1651, 43; under Charles II, 57; 
population, 61 ; number of slaves 
and white servants, 65 ; Assembly 
proposes intercolonial committees 
of correspondence, 113; Assembly 



proposes a general congress, 1774, 
1 15 ; troops in the Revolution, 135, 
158 ; delegates to Continental 
Congress instructed to propose 
independence, 126; plan of union 
submitted to the Federal Conven- 
tion, 180 ; ratifies the Constitution, 
187 ; opposes assumption of State 
debts, 195 ; prohibits importation 
of .slaves, 256 ; debate on slavery 
in the legislature, 309 ; secedes, 
350, bibliography, 356. 

Virginia and Kentucky resolutions, 
210; bibliography, 222. 

Virginia Company, the, 20. 

Virginius, the, 493. 

Volunteers, Lincoln's call for, 352. 

Walker, Admiral John G., 530. 

Walker, Robert J., 297, 334. 

War, Department of, established, 
192. 

War of the- Austrian Succession, 78. 

War of democracy against autocracy, 
567. 

War of i8i2, declared, 232; events 
of, 235-246 ; treaty of Ghent, 
247; attitude of New England, 
247-249; results, 249. 

Ward, General Artemas, 119, 121. 

Warner, Colonel Seth, 121, 138. 

Washington, city of, becomes seat 
of government, 212; the burning 
of, 245, bibliography, 250. 

Washington, State of, admitted to 
the Union, 465. 

Washington, Treaty of, 477. 

Washington, Booker T., 520. 

Washington, George, portrait, 117; 
sent to warn the French against 
encroachments in the Ohio Valley, 
81 ; member of Braddock's expedi- 
tion, 83, 84 ; in command on the 
frontier, 85 ; member of the 
Continental Congress, 116; chosen 
to command the American army 
in the Revolution, 121 ; as.sumes 
command before Boston, 122 ; 
abandons New York, 131 ; retires 
across the Delaware, 133 ; appeals 
for troops, 135 ; defeats the British 
at Trenton and at Princeton, 136 ; 



Index 



27 



in winter quarters at Morristown, 
137 ; opposes Howe's niovoment 
against Philadelphia, 140-142 ; at 
Valley Forge, 149 ; bibliography, 
156 ; at Monmouth, 150 ; at 
Yorktown, 169 ; chairman of the 
Federal Convention, 180 ; for- 
wards the Constitution to Con- 
gress, 185 ; election and inaugura- 
tion of, 191 ; makes tour of New 
Enghind, 194; reelected, 199; 
Farewell Addre.s.s, 205 ; appointed 
to the chief command, 209. 

Washington, Colonel William, 164. 

Watauga Association, Arti-les of the, 
108. 

" Watchful waiting," the policy of, 
551. 

Wayne, General Anthony, portrait, 
167; 151, 167, 200. 

Weaver, General James B., 468. 

Webster, Daniel, portrait, 292; 
debate with Hayne, 275 ; secretary 
of state, 291 ; seventh-of-March 
speech, 318; death, 321; speech 
at Capon Springs, Virginia, ciuoted, 
326. 

Webster-Ashburton Treaty, 291 ; 
bililiography, 307. 

West, expansion of the, 251, 258; 
economic dependeiice on the South, 
259 ; political alliance with South, 
260; bibliography, 269. 

West Florida, British province of, 
200; and the Louisiana Purchase, 
218 ; controversy over, 219 ; 
occupied by United States, 261, 
262 ; bil)liography, 270. 

West Indies, trade with, 66, 95, 285. 

West Jersey, 51. 

West Point, 133. 

West, Thomas, Lord Delaware, 25. 

West Virginia, organization of, 352. 

Western democracy, 273. 

Western development, 304 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 307. 

Western Reserve, 177. 

Weyler, General, 494, 498. 

Wheaton, General Lloyd, 511. 

Wheeler, General Joseph, 505. 

Whig party, formation of, 278 ; 
nominates Hariison and Tyler, 



289, 290; repudiates Tyler, 291; 
nominates Henry Clay, 295 ; nomi- 
nates General Taylor, 315 ; nomi- 
nates General Scott, 320 ; dis- 
integrates, 329, 333. 

Whigs, in the Revolution, 123. 

Whisky Rebellion, 196 ; bibliography, 
206. 

White, Edward D., appointed chief 
justice, 543. 

White Plains, battle of, 132. 

Whitney, Eli, 256. 

Wilderness, battle of the, 412 ; 
bililiographv, 422. 

Wiley, Dr. H." W., 541. 

Wilkes, Captain Charles. 398. 

Wilkinson, General James, repulsed 
at Chrystler's Farm, 243. 

William, and Mary, 60, 75. 

William and Mary College, 68, 69. 

Williams, Roger, 37, 38. 

Williamson, Hugh, 183. 

Wilmot Proviso, 313, 315 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 322. 

Wilson, Henry Lane, 551. 

Wilson, James, 127, 180, 182. 

Wilson, William L., 469. 

Wilson, Woodrow, portrait, frontis- 
piece ; nominated for presidency, 
547 ; elected, 548 ; appears before 
the two houses of Congress, 549 ; 
Pan-American policy of, 553 ; 
renomination of, 560 ; war address 
of April 2, 1917, 567. 

Wilson Tarifif Act, 469. 

Winona, Taft's .speech at, 541. 

Winthrop, John, portrait, 36 ; 27, 35. 

Wirt, William, 254, 278. 

Wisconsin, admitted to the Union, 
307. 

Wolfe, General James, at siege of 
Louisburg, 86 ; selected to com- 
mand the expedition against 
Quebec, 87; victory and death, 
89. 

Woman suffrage, 545, 564. 

Wood, General Leonard, 505, 523. 

Woodford. General William, 125, 158. 

Writs of assistance, 9."). 

Wyoming, admitted to the Union, 
465. 

Wythe, George, 152. 



28 



Index 



X, Y, Z affair, 208. 

Yale College, 70. 
Yancey, W. L., 397. 
Yazoo Bill, 221. 
Yeardley, Sir George, 25. 



York, James, Duke of, 50. 
Yorktown, Cornwallis retires to, 168' 
siege of, 169 ; bibliography, 174. 

Zimmermann note, 566. 



